Ness had spent the past few minutes climbing back up through the warp pipe he had jumped into. He never knew how to use them completely. He knew how to get in but if he had to go back through it, he never could do it as simply as the plumbers did. He sighed in relief when he finally reached the top of the pipe again. The other boarder guard was unconscious, the shy guy looking like he had seen his fair share of a beating. Mario and Luigi looked like they had a breeze.
"Whoa. You okay, Ness?" Mario asked, worried for his young helper. Seeing the big bruise on his face was worrying. The raven haired boy shrugged.
"Just another chipped tooth. I'll live," Ness joked, though those hammer hits he received to the face did hurt a lot. His face was starting to get sore from all the abuse, but with both of the guards unconscious, nothing was stopping them from getting to the desert kingdom now.
"Let's get going! We don't have time to lose," Luigi insisted. They needed to hurry, wanting to save Princess Peach real soon. The three of them thus headed into the desert land. It had barely taken minutes to feel the merciless heat of the sun beaming down upon them. Mario was no fan of the desert, not even since he first landed in one. He preferred the tropical area in the land. Luigi though preferred anywhere that didn't involve scary monsters. Each step in the sand left an imprint behind, only to be recovered almost instantly. Mario knew the best way to survive the heat would be to keep their minds off it.
"Ness, mind if I ask you something?" the red plumber requested while taking his hat off his head, stuffing it in one of his pockets. Sweat was trickling down his face.
"What is it?" the teenager responded trying to use his psi to cool himself down but it wasn't doing much and he didn't want to pour every last drop of energy into just trying to cool down something he had learnt from an old friend the last time they were at the smash mansion
"Before she went missing… Peach had been acting weird. I know how close you two are. I wanted to know if you knew anything?" the Italian explained. His young friend was confused by what he meant, wondering if Princess Peach was being affected by the pregnancy. If his math was right, she only should be three months along.
"What do you mean by weird?" Ness responded. But as she told him, he wasn't going to share the information just like he promised her. He was mentally afraid of what Mario would do if he found out. He wasn't the father, after all, though Ness could assume one thing. Peach had given him his fair share of rewards for rescuing her, so much beyond cake, and he just wanted to get out of his own thought process now imagining it.
"Like one day, she could be depressed and the next she could be too happy. I tried to talk to her friends about it, but Samus seemed like the only one who knew and she wouldn't tell me," the red plumber finished his explanation, though Ness was oblivious to the princess and the galactic bounty hunter's friendship. He presumed that Samus would hate Peach. Maybe he was too assuming on that matter.
"I'm sorry, Mario, but I think you need to talk with the princess about this," Ness stated while wiping sweat off his forehead. Luigi knew he was hiding something, but he wanted to stay out of it. Mario was well aware of this, too, but was a little angered to be left out of the informative loop that was apparently being kept between Ness and Peach.
"Hey, we're here!" Luigi chimed happily, seeing the familiar appearance of a desert kingdom. Ness was mentally hoping this wasn't a mirage, though it didn't look like a kingdom. It appeared to be more of a glorified huge outpost full of wooden stands, some housing more toward the inner parts of the city. When they entered inside they could see a lot of Toads who wore cloth around their mushroom caps, and variously coloured mouse people.
"Ah, yes… Desert Land. This place can be great, for the most part," Mario claimed, but Ness was not feeling too great. He doubted the walk here was worth it any longer in the heat. He felt like he was seeing hallucinations.
"Please, tell me we're close to the warp pipes?" Ness questioned, hoping they were near the pipes Mario talked about that could take them very close to Bowser's Castle, saving them a lot of travels. The plumbers nodded, pointing straight ahead to one of the many houses with two Toads standing outside the door with spears.
"What are they doing there?" Ness wondered.
"They're just guards. Come on, we have to hurry," Mario then insisted, leading the way.