Shards of Love: REDUX!
Shard III: Alliances
With the 'Big Three' alliance within reach, Peach and the Koopas must, at all costs, stop the Mushroom Kingdom and Sarasalandian forces from reaching Jewelry Land and forming an alliance with King Fret.
Chapter XXI
Discovery
"Is this it?"
Peach gasps at the sheer size of the cave opening, as well as the bleakness that continues for meters in. No light welcomes the quartet, resulting in insecure feelings welling up within the princess. She never enjoyed dark areas; nothing good ever came from them. In the twilight zones, she's robbed of one vital sense, resulting in her abduction chances skyrocketing.
"Looks like it, Peach… I had Kamek be in charge of this cave when Mario came through. Kamek said the cave leads to the Light Realm, but the cave is… Long."
Daisy and Luigi peer into the cave then gives Bowser a nod. Indeed, the cave's pitch-black; they'll need fire and torch material.
"So, I learned how to make a torch on my wilderness survival trips," Daisy started almost too nonchalant, "The easiest way is with a stick, a sort of fabric, a sort of flammable substance, something to keep the fabric on the stick, and a firestarter."
While Daisy hunts for a few good sticks, the other three ponder over what items they can use to construct the stick. Peach, of course, tends to wear a hairband, but she lost the band days ago in the float castle's forests. Bowser and Luigi, as expected, never wore any sort of elastic band, nor do they have any reliable flammable fuel.
"Wait!" Luigi exclaimed, snapping both Bowser and Peach out of their thoughts, "Bowser! Let me see inside the bags."
Shrugging, Bowser lays the bags down. In haste, Luigi dumps the contents out of one of the bags, revealing kitchen staples such as rusting utensils, a damaged salt shaker and a broken jar of solidified oil. With care, Luigi hoists the oil into his hands while eying the others.
"Err, I brought coconut oil. I don't know why," Luigi shrugged, "But it works as fuel, right?"
"It burns well enough. There's better fuels, but we don't have those," Daisy answered, carrying three large sticks with her, "We can use that as the fuel, and I have the sticks to use. We can use that sack as the fabric, and unless any of you have a better idea, we can just tie the fabric onto the stick."
Seeing none of them protest the decision, Daisy lays down the stick and rips the empty sack into a large rectangular mass before further dissecting it into three near-equal parts. As she puts a sheet over the first stick, she tears a piece of fabric from the sheet and uses it to tie the fabric onto the stick. She tests the strength of the fabric's hold before handing the unmade torch to Luigi.
"Weeg," Daisy cooed, much to the enjoyment of Peach and Bowser, "Rub on the oil!"
Peach and Bowser snicker while the red-faced Luigi rubs a slab of coconut oil onto the 'torch' tip. He repeats the process to the three other torches as Daisy finishes crafting them, much to Peach and Bowser's enjoyment.
"Sheesh, I feel like I'm in high school with you two laughing over there," Luigi rolls his eyes, still blushing, "Grow up!"
"Now you know how it feels!" Peach exclaimed, "You two always tease me and Bowser about romance!"
"Yeah, but…" Daisy paused before exchanging eye contact between Peach and Bowser, "You two are enemies. Err, WERE enemies. Now you both are lovebirds, and you two know it! Stop hiding it! Your case is much more fun!"
Peach feels her face heating up as Daisy counseled her. She realizes she DOES have some sort of feeling for Bowser, but at this point, she's more curious about him as a whole. But, Daisy's statement rings in her ears. Is she truly hiding romantic feelings for Bowser?
"Hmmph. Let's stop burning time and let's go in the cave already!" Peach muttered.
Bowser takes a torch and launches a small fireball at the tip, igniting the oil-covered cloth. Luigi, Daisy and Peach pick up their unlit torches and stare at the now-blue sky for the last time. They're unsure when they'll be out of the cave, but they hope within a few hours.
The quartet enter the cave where the grotto's frigid conditions bombard them. Daisy whiffs the dank air and cringes; mold's growing everywhere, and the spores will grow on whatever food's still edible. They need to hurry through this cave, but none of the four, save for maybe Bowser, know how deep it goes.
"Good ol' spelunking, this is perhaps the moistest cave I've ever been in," Daisy murmured, "But if it's only water and not something gross like... Uhh, bat pee or something... We'll be a-ok."
"Bats?!" Peach shivered at the thought, "There better not be bats here!"
"We're in a cave, missy! Get ready to see bats and other weird creepy, crawling critters!" Daisy reminded, causing the pink princess to cross her arms and scowl.
"Daisy!"
"Just sayin'. Call it a warning. But it's definitely moist enough for life in here."
"I see..." Bowser murmured as he stares at the torch's fire, which struggles to stay alive due to the cave's humidity. Despite its struggles, the fire illuminates the path, revealing a forked path, "I think all the paths go straight... Or maybe one turns? Dunno, but the wrong paths don't go too far, so if we take one, we can just turn around."
"Geez, Mister Confident, I hope you don't get us lost now!" the Sarasalandian princess replied, her sassy tone causing Bowser to sigh.
"You lead then, Miss Spelunker."
"Maybe I should!" Daisy raised her voice, resulting in her voice echoing. As the sound travels throughout the cave, the four characters hope their voices don't disrupt any beings that shouldn't otherwise be disturbed, although they hear scurrying as a response.
The four follow Daisy, although heeding Bowser's advice to go straight. As they venture deeper into the unknown, the humidity only increases and the temperature drops to near-freezing temperatures. Through the fire's faint light, the characters spot large fungal growths on the cave's rocky walls, from never-before-seen mushrooms to frost-resistant mold cultures.
Despite the frigid conditions, a freshwater stream trickles from the walls and travels across the ground. Luigi stares at the stream, thirsting for its contents.
"We need more water," the green-clad plumber notified, "All the water I packed were in the bags, but we ran out of them."
Daisy nodded, "Definitely! But we need to disinfect the water. I doubt we have iodine, so we need to boil this. The last thing we want is someone getting sick in the middle of nowhere."
"I mean, we always could..." Luigi admitted, "But we're in a cave. This torch flame's probably dangerous enough."
"The cave's high enough," Daisy pointed out as she stares at the cave's stalactites about twenty feet above her, "So a little fire shouldn't do much harm."
Meanwhile, Peach and Bowser also observe the stream's clear water, listening to the running water's murmuring echoes playing in the background of the other two's voices. They need to get more water, but the koopa king's also unsure of what the group have left to treat the water. Handing the lit torch to Peach, Bowser drops the remaining sack and rummages through the contents. He pulls out the wooden cooking utensils and the wooden saltshaker; this can be viable firewood for boiling the water.
"My survival guide said that fire inside a cave is fine, as long as it's in the back of it," Daisy continued, "And the smoke rises while the oxygen gets burned off from the bottom. As long as we stay low and the fire isn't too big, the fire won't be bad."
Luigi nods, "Okay, let's do that then."
"Here's some firewood," Bowser points towards the utensils and the shaker before pulling out an intact 2-liter jug, "And there's also a jar in here."
Luigi takes the discarded wood and arranges them on a flat area before surrounding the pit with loose stones. Meanwhile, Daisy takes the jug from Bowser and fills it up at the stream, while Peach directs the lit torch towards Luigi's firepit and sets the wood ablaze.
An immediate warmth radiates throughout the cave and the three humans sigh in relief. Experiencing the sudden temperature change, Daisy shivers a little, spilling a bit of the water from the jug as she places it on a stone next to the fire.
"Welp," the Sarasalandian princess concluded as she stares at the other characters, "We need to wait a bit. We might as well camp out here."
"Tell me about it," Peach sighed, "We had to walk, swim, fight one of your traitorous kings and explore this thing."
"And we're not even done yet!" Daisy added, "But now we need to relax."
Despite reeling from her injuries, Kammy desires to be on the battlefield, leading the troops to victory in the name of Dark Land. She wants to help the Koopalings with their victory over Mario's villainous soldiers, and she wants to save her homeland from those despicable mushroomers. Her body, however, remains in the unfortunate position of disobeying her mind; even a muscle twitch leads to a surge of pain for the frail magikoopa.
"Gah!" Kammy screeched as her arm starts twitching, "Those filthy mushroomers will pay!"
Even she knows her own threats, like her legs in their current state, carry no weight. She's trapped on a hospital cot, able to attack with nothing more than words. Rather than firing light-based magic with her wand, only her murmurings bounce off the hospital room's empty white walls.
However, she has faith in the leadership abilities of Lemmy, Iggy, Wendy and Pom Pom; the four, along with the ground forces, will wipe out the Mushroom army with ease.
Deep in her thoughts and worries, Kammy fails to recognize a white-robed magikoopa entering her room, carrying a teapot, a teacup and a saucer. The magikoopa sets the saucer on Kammy's makeshift nightstand before setting the cup onto the saucer.
"Good evening, m'lady," the magikoopa greeted before pouring some tea into the cup, "You have no broken bones, surprisingly, so to treat you, I have here some brewed tiger lily. Within a few hours of drinking this and resting, your body will be healed from your injuries."
Kammy, remembering her fine days as a healing, white-robed magikoopa, gives the nurse a small smile before hoisting the cup towards her mouth. She's familiar with tiger lily – after all, the plant's quick regenerative process that makes it a wretched weed, also aids in faster healing; that property proves vital for medicinal purposes – but she never tasted the menthol-laced plant.
"I never thought tiger lily tasted like mint," Kammy marvelled, "It never left the smell on my fingers after I handled it."
"It's quite minty, m'lady, which is why we brew it as a tea. Many people out there cannot handle the pungent taste. The flavour really only comes out when the leaf's broken; it doesn't leave residue like mint."
Kammy continues drinking the tea whilst the magikoopa continues observing her. After she consumes the last drop of tea, she places the cup on the saucer and pours herself more of the tea. Before drinking, Kammy gives the magikoopa a questioning look.
"How much am I supposed to have?"
"As much as you desire, m'lady. Tiger lily has low toxicity and almost no side effects," The magikoopa responds before giving Kammy a little bow, "Do you need anything else from me, m'lady?"
With the teacup still to her mouth, Kammy gives the magikoopa a little headshake. The only thing she desires is some alone time, as that'll give her some extra time to solidify the armies' plans. She also can collaborate with Kamek; her wand should be somewhere-
Her wand! Where is it?! Did it get left back on the battlefield?!
"Wait!" Kammy shrieked at the magikoopa, "My wand! Where in the bloody world is my wand?!"
"It's in the weapons storage area. I'll fetch it for you. Just please try to relax, m'lady."
"Relax? RELAX?! Do you NOT know what's going on here?! We're at WAR!" Kammy shrieked to the point where the frustration caught even her off-guard, "I… Don't know where that came from."
"Perhaps from the tea, m'lady."
"But you stated there were no side effects!"
"I said there were ALMOST no side effects, m'lady."
"… Just get me my wand."
As the magikoopa scurries, the witch lays back down and sighs. She desires to fight alongside her master's kin, but she knows her body will reject the offer. But, she's not throwing in the towel and treating this experience as a form of spa date. Her kingdom's at risk; vermin and apes yearn to destroy the land she grew to respect. The land of her ancestors. The land that supported them for millennia. Her land's at risk, and she refuses to relax while it's threatened. She may not be able to fight alongside the Koopalings just yet, but she at least can contact Kamek and the Koopalings to modify and ratify their current strategy.
Which is why her wand's dear to her.
Larry breathes in the sweet, flowery air as he steps outside the Toad Town International Airport. From his adventures in the doomship, to Upper Sky Land and the plane, the youngest koopaling's grateful to once again be on solid ground.
Of course, the joy doesn't last long; the castle's still a hefty ten kilometres away, and he has no currency of any kind for a cab. He COULD walk the distance, but he doesn't have much time to burn, especially with the Mushroom Kingdom's advancing armies awaiting an invasion of Dark Land. He could also go coin block hunting, but those almost never exist in urban areas. Instead, he'll have to do what makes the most sense, as he risks being arrested either way…
Not far away, he spots a van-cab pulling over to pick up a passenger. He walks towards the cab, initially not focusing on the cab to avoid suspicion. As he reaches about five metres from the drivers' side door, the cab driver gets out of the van to aid the passenger with lifting her baggage into the van's back hatch.
Taking the opportunity to his advantage, Larry dashes towards the drivers' door, opens it and jumps in. Before the driver or the passenger notices, Larry pulls the van into Drive and zooms towards the street, leaving both the driver and the passenger dazed.
Hatch still open, he drives towards Peach's castle before he notices a sea of flashing lights behind him. Initially stunned by the sirens accompanying the blue-and-red lights, the youngest koopaling regains his composure before making a sharp turn left down a busy street. Through the van's still-open hatch, Larry hears screams as mushroomers sprint towards the sidewalk as he barrels towards them while the sneak blares the van's horn. Only half the police cruisers follow him down the path, once again risking the lives of the mushroomers, and that news doesn't overjoy Larry. He knows how the Mushroom Province Police work; they box in carjackers and other fleeing criminals using their own police cruisers; the other half will meet him from the front, so he risks capture.
Fortunately, the youngest koopaling has a plan B: he won't be able to escape by van, but that doesn't mean he can't escape by foot. Instead, he'll do what Ludwig does best: cause the van's engine to explode. The resulting smoke will be able to camouflage him as he runs away from the scene.
Just as he figured, the other half of the police fleet turn in front of the koopaling. Grinning, Larry opens the van's fuse box and damages the fuse leading to the engine's cooling system before crashing the van into the entrance of a narrow alleyway. Not long after, the fleet surrounds the van, guns in hand.
"Freeze! Hands in the air! Now!"
Larry, his smirk still in place, raises his hands and faces the commanding police officer. From the corner of his eye, he notices the van's smoke growing more potent. The blown fuse now caused the cylinder head gasket to rupture, and from observing Ludwig operating on Mushroom Kingdom-built vans, he knows "the big one" will be coming any second…
"Hey! FREEZE!" the officer commands once again as Larry lowers his hands. The koopaling shakes his head and dashes in front of the van, hiding from view of the police officers, but before the officers can react, the van bursts into flames, letting out a huge plume of smoke and concealing Larry.
"We lost the suspect. Secure all areas within a kilometer perimeter. I repeat, secure all areas within a kilometer perimeter. Consider this carjacker armed and dangerous!" the officer commands in his radio communicator, effectively stumped by the concealing smoke.
Despite his sneakiness, Larry wasn't spared from the explosion either. The bottom of his disguise also caught fire, although due to his reflexes of taking the clothes off, his scales only received minor, first-degree burns at the worst. Despite the pain, he hurries down the alleyway until a door appears on the side. Relieved that the door's unlocked, Larry enters the building.
Unlike the spectacular, modern buildings Toad Town's known for, this building appears to be a former clinic, now abandoned and trashed. Blankets of dust circulate the air for every disturbance Larry causes, causing the koopaling's hay fever to intensify. Wishing to find an antihistamine drug or another type of allergy blocker on top of ointment for his burns, he descends a flight of stairs, leading to an area of abandoned beds.
Or, what appeared to be abandoned…
Larry spots the shape of a figure lying on one of the beds. Curious, he moves towards the figure and lets out a loud gasp.
"W-w-what?!"
On the bed was a man, gagged and tied to the bed, hooked up to IV machines. Sighting Larry, the man's blue eyes widen and he starts trying to break out from his bonds.
Still in denial over who the figure is, Larry first stares at the hospital gown the man's wearing, before turning towards another wall bearing his famous red shirt, red cap and blue overalls. Afterwards, the stunned Larry stares at the man with wide eyes.
"M-Mario?!"
NOTES: Yeah, shorter chapter and a cliffhanger. :(
Just an update: I'll be busy for the next few months, and even when I'm not, I want to push further in my pre-written chapters before publishing them. I like being between 10 and 12 chapters ahead just in case I need to make major changes (such as what I did with Chapter 14), and I'm only at Chapter 30 done right now. The 30's are gonna be absolutely crazy to write, but I'm excited about the challenge. I'm thinking I'll have another update sometime between mid-April and early May, but other than that I'll be quite inactive until July timeframe.
Thank you for all the support!