Chapter 14 Falling Down and Feeling Down

Celia continued to stare at the water. The river acted as a mirror that allowed the girl to see into her soul. In said soul, she could see emotions of sadness and confusion swirling around. She could also feel those emotions boiling in her stomach. Was she on the right path? Was she loyal to the right people? Celia did not know.

Celia lifted her head and looked over at Aqua. The princess had a concerned look as she leaned close to the water. It was almost as if she was listening to it, letting it tell her secrets.

"This is not good," Aqua said. Celia stood up, curious.

"What's not good?"

"The water. It does not sound right. I can hear it speeding up. It is feeling excited and anxious at the same time."

Celia felt confused. Aqua could detect the emotions of a river? How the World Eight did she do that? Was it because her Hydrokinesis gave her a special connection to the liquid?

"Why would water be feeling that way?" Celia asked, trying to mask her incredulity. Aqua stood up, her face plastered with concern.

"There's only one thing that I can think of." She pointed ahead. Celia squinted and saw a point where the water dropped off. Her eyes grew wide.

"Oh no…"

"Yep!" Aqua said. She backed up so that she was at the back of the raft. Celia looked over at the Lake Kingdom's Princess in concern.

"What do we do? Do we go back to shore?"

Aqua shook her head.

"No. This river is the only way that we'll be able to cross into the Sand Kingdom. We need to keep following it."

Celia's eyes grew wide. Her heart started to pound.

"Are you insane?" she practically yelled as she approached Aquamarine. "We could be killed!"

"No, we won't. We'll be fine."

"But...it's a waterfall…!"

"Celia!" Aqua cut her off sternly. "I have Hydrokinesis. I know what I'm doing; just trust me."

Celia swallowed a lump as she looked back at the drop off point. The waterfall was probably a big one. Yet, at the same time, Aqua seemed so confident. So calm. Celia took a deep breath.

"Okay."

Aqua nodded. The closer that they got to the waterfall, the more sweaty Celia was becoming. She could see the Sand Kingdom below the cliff. Its vermillion landscape almost distracted Celia from the dropoff that she and Aqua were about to go down.

"Okay," Aqua muttered to herself. She and Celia were less than a foot away from the waterfall. "Let's do this."

With that, Aqua held her hands above the water. Celia could see that they were six inches away from their doom. Five inches. Four. She closed her eyes, bracing herself for the fall.

But, to her surprise, the fall wasn't as intense as she had originally anticipated. She opened her eyes, and was astonished by the fact that a path of water was jutting out from the waterfall. It slanted down toward the ground, similar to a waterslide. Celia screamed as she and Aqua went barreling down the slide that the Princess had created.

When they were halfway down the slide, Aqua put on a little grin. She held her hands up higher, and a loop de loop formed out of the stream. The raft, now going at breakneck speeds, managed to get over the loop without much of a problem. She laughed and whooped in delight, much to Celia's chagrin. By the time that they got down to the ground, Celia was pretty shaken. She clung to the raft tightly with both hands and trembled like a puppy.

"That…" she said with wide eyes. "That was…"

"Amazing!" Aqua said. She dismounted the raft and giddily bounced up and down in the sand. "I need to try that again sometime soon! I'm sure that Mario and Peach would love it!"

Celia could only nod. She stood up and immediately felt nauseous. She retched on the ground, clinging to her stomach with both arms. Aqua placed her hand on her shoulder.

"You okay?"

Celia vomited again and slowly nodded. She somehow managed to smile when she looked at Aqua.

"You did a good job."

Aqua beamed delightedly. Unfortunately, her delight did not last when she saw what was in front of them.

"Oh boy. The Sand Kingdom. I am so excited about this."

"Well, we have to cross it if you want to get home," Celia said. Aqua sighed.

"Yipee."

…

Bowser paced down the halls of the castle. His arms were behind his shell and his head was facing the royal carpet. His eyelids were dropped down to half mast.

"I sure hope that they find her soon."

Really, that was all Bowser really hoped for at this point. All he did, he did in order to get the Princess. All he did, he did for the good of everyone; his kingdom, his children, Junior. Of course, not everything he did was entirely sound morally. But at the end of the day, Bowser did not regret the decisions that he made.

He turned around. The servants were bustling about the west wing, making themselves useful. Bowser felt envious of them, really. He wanted to make himself useful by going out to look for Aqua and Celia. The only reasons he wasn't doing that was because of his headache and the fact that he had royal duties he had to attend to in a little bit.

Suddenly, Bowser heard a small voice come from one of the west wing's rooms. He looked through the door and smiled. Junior was on his bedroom floor, and he was playing pretend with his toys.

"'Oh, Madam Donkey!'" Junior exclaimed as he made a stuffed donkey clump across the floor. "'You have to return to the barn before something terrible happens!'"

Bowser slowly allowed himself to enter by lightly pushing on the door. Junior looked up at him and blinked.

"Hey, Dad."

"Hey, BJ. Whatcha doing?"

Junior looked down at his toys, a certain type of embarrassment taking hold.

"Nothing."

Bowser laughed. Kids could be adorable sometimes.

"Oh, okay. Well, you certainly look really happy for someone who is doing nothing!"

Junior started to turn red.

"Daadd…!"

"Don't worry; I'm just messing with you," Bowser said. He entered the room and ruffled his son's hair. Junior looked up at his father.

"How's the search going?" he asked. Bowser let out a frustrated moan.

"I haven't heard anything from the Koopalings yet."

"Oh," Junior said in dismay. "That's too bad."

"Yes, it is." He leaned down and beamed at Junior. "But don't worry. Soon enough, we will find Princess Aqua, and you'll have a new mother."

Junior didn't respond to this, but Bowser could see that he had a hopeful glow enter his eyes. This made Bowser extremely satisfied.

"Well, I am going to let you return to doing nothing. I have things that I need to do." Bowser got up and walked toward the door.

"Dad?"

"Yes, son?"

A pause lingered in the air, ripe with possibilities.

"Thank you. For everything."

Bowser's heart turned to mush.

"You're welcome, Junior."