The Lumas had convinced Rosalina to at least dip her toes in the water, so that was what she was doing. While they were off trying to play beach volleyball with a few Toads who had stayed here after Mario's journey, she was on the other side of the beach, standing on the shore in ankle-deep water, staring down at her too-pale feet. She wriggled her toes, sending sand particles everywhere.
Rosalina lifted her head towards the horizon, where muddy orange met the empty fullness of space. The squeals of Lumas and Toads alike filled the air. From somewhere far off, she could make out the mechanical whirring of the machines and bubble blasters.
Below them would be the ghost ship, lonely and rotting away since Mario's second battle with Kamella. Never again would it sail the great seas. In fact, no one seemed to remember that it was even there, floating silently with only the holes in the cave opening it up to the outside world.
Rosalina wondered what it would be like to be forgotten, to be left behind, to be well and truly alone. She sank to her knees, the water now reaching her waist. The gentle swishing drowned out the Toads and Lumas, like they were never there to begin with. The water sloshed around in her mind and she closed her eyes, shutting herself off from the outside world, just like the ghost ship. There she bobbed in her mind's eye, in a big ocean of lukewarm blackness, where no one could ever find her. It was too vast and too dark for one to cross, let alone find her.
She was like this very galaxy, in a way. It was just one of hundreds, thousands, millions out there. What's one worth to anyone?
"Mama, Mama!"
Rosalina opened her eyes and let the sunlight into her dark cave.
"Mama, can we go exploring? We'll be very careful, we promise!"
"Sure!" She paused, thinking of all the hidden, forgotten things she will never know, or maybe even forget about them herself. "Do you want to see a ghost ship? Mario went there once. He fought someone there..."