Next chapter is up! :D I hope to get this all up soon.

Peach's eyes widened. "Traitor... The Fate said he'd be forgiven?" Her eyes glazed over for a moment, and she stared blankly over Zelda's shoulder and into the stars.

"It said you'd get the option," Zelda said. "So you understand this?"

Peach nodded. "I think I understand what it means." she frowned. "But... I don't know... Forgive him? After so long?"

"Peach?" Zelda asked. "Who's the traitor?"

Peach looked down. "The traitor..." her voice was filled with sadness.

"You don't have to tell me," Zelda said, "if it hurts too much."

"No," said Peach. "I can say it. The traitor is Bowser. Bowser." The second time she said it, her eyes moved to the grass beneath their feet and her head bent.

"Bowser?" Zelda asked, perplexed. Then an image floated to the surface of her brain. "I saw Bowser in my dream. He was walking alone, surrounded by darkness... he looked sad... lonely, perhaps."

Peach looked back up at Zelda thoughtfully. "Really?"

"Yes," said Zelda. Reluctant to press Peach, she said nothing more.

Peach was silent for a moment. Then she looked down again. "Bowser... was once my best friend in the whole world." A tiny smile crossed her face.

"He was your best friend?" Zelda asked.

Peach nodded. "When I was just a little girl, I snuck out from the castle to walk in the rain. I loved the rain, but I never got to see it. You see, my father always made me stay inside when it rained, worried I'd catch cold, or get struck by lightning, or get lost..."

Zelda smiled. "Mine was the same way," she said.

Peach laughed a little. "Dads." then she continued. "Well, I walked in the forest by the castle. It's really pretty during the rain - all the leaves are shining with drops, but you really don't get that wet as long as you walk near the trees. It's all silver... it's so beautiful.. Then I heard someone crying. I ran to see who it was... It was a little Koopa Kid. He was sitting on the forest floor, all alone, crying. I asked him what was wrong. He explained to me that he was all alone. His mother had died when he was born, and his father had died just recently. He had left to go find a home, travelled all over the place, and now he was lost. So I invited him to come home and wait out the storm with me. He came. We sat by the fire and talked. He introduced himself to me as Bowser.

"Soon, the rainstorm changed into a thunderstorm. When I was little, I was absolutely terrified of thunder and lightning. But when Bowser found out I was scared, he talked to me. Made me laugh. Distracted me. He shared stories his parents had told him, we played games." Peach smiled sadly. "And for the first time, I wasn't afraid."

Zelda smiled. "He seems like he was very sweet as a kid."

"He was," said Peach. "After the storm, I asked my father if he could stay. He... took some convincing, but eventually he said Bowser could stay." Peach laughed. "Toadsworth never liked him - thought he was too crude. Said that a princess should have gentler companions. But Bowser was fun to be around and he never lied to me. I'd always hated it when people lied. Bowser was as curious as I was. We spent hours outside, wandering the places near the castle. Since Bowser, even then, was a fearsome foe, my father allowed me to go places I had never seen before, as long as Bowser was with me. We went all over. We figured out how things worked, we played tricks on people in the castle. Every day, we took a basket of food, and we'd be out all day. We had picnics in the prettiest spots." She smiled. "With his help, I figured out how to make daisy chains. Once, I decorated his shell when he was asleep."

An image of Bowser with daisy chains all wrapped around the spikes on his shell popped into Zelda's head, and she laughed.

Peach continued. "We were the best of friends for years and years. It was so amazing to finally have someone my own age to play with." her voice became distant. "We grew up together. Now, I barely remember my life before I met him."

"So what happened?" Zelda asked.

Peach's face fell. "I don't know. It was a couple of years after I had met Mario." She blushed a little, then sighed. "Bowser just went and kidnapped me. And when Mario came to rescue me, he panicked."

"Was he angry?" Zelda asked. "Jealous?"

Peach shrugged. "I don't know. What I do know is this. His spite, all that meanness... it's only there sometimes. He was good to me. Sometimes he and I would talk, and he was almost like the old Bowser then. His troops always treated me well. I was never hurt. And when he fought Mario, he... held back. He seemed to be trying not to kill him. He only ever knocked him out, and dumped him somewhere away from the castle. And when Mario won, he always did the same thing - he knows Bowser and I were friends."

Zelda looked at Peach thoughtfully. "Does... whatever your mother said have anything to do with Bowser's change?"

Peach looked down. "I'd... rather not talk about what my mother said, if that's okay."

"Alright," said Zelda.

This one is short, but I like it. It reveals Peach's side of my Bowser Backstory. XD Aliteration. :D This story will be told twice more, from two other points of view.