Hey y'all! Hope you enjoyed that change of pace because you're getting another chapter of the Mushroom Kingdom trio! Last chapter saw Mario, Luigi, & Peach discovering that they have been stranded on Gulabahaar due to a late night check in at Chai Inn in Sarasaland, and have found that Daisy is missing and in the clutches of Tatanga, so they set out to find her. This chapter will explore the first part of their trek to the palace. Enjoy!
Luigi, Mario, and Peach congregated in the front foyer of the Sarasaland Palace and set off on foot. A heavy silence hung over the trio as they approached the forest they had first seen from the window of Chai Inn - something about this journey felt different and more serious than the many rescue missions Mario had led to save Princess Peach from the clutches of Bowser. Tatanga was more unfamiliar territory, and had had plenty of time to concoct a more serious plan, plus the whole displacement of Sarasaland seemed much more permanent than anything Bowser had ever done. Peach surveyed the two brothers, slumped slightly as they walked. She recalled seeing Mario in the distance out the window of Bowser's castle when she was kidnapped, and he always looked determined.
"Guys, wait," Peach spoke. She stepped ahead of Mario and Luigi and turned to face them. "You guys already look so defeated. Now I know Tatanga is pretty new to us as an enemy, and I can only imagine how worried you must be, Luigi, but if we stomp over there with frowns and hunched shoulders we'll have already lost! Let's chipper up and head over there, with determination in our stride! Plus, the quicker we walk the faster we get there. I know that this will be my first rescue mission and that I am probably quite unaware of what lays ahead, but I'm hopeful and willing to do what it takes to save my best friend. What do you say?"
Upon hearing this, Luigi's back straightened. "You're absolutely right. I'll admit I am quite nervous about this, but I'm looking forward to the opportunity to prove myself not only to King Darius but to Daisy and to the rest of the Mushroom Kingdom and Sarasaland. And I would give anything to hold Daisy in my arms knowing that she is safe and comfortable. We're gonna get her back." Luigi strode forward with renewed purpose, Mario and Peach in his wake. Mario piped up as they walked: "I'm with you, Luigi. This'll be a challenge for me too, a mostly unfamiliar enemy and unfamiliar landscape, but I'm up for the challenge and I'm not going to let you down."
The trio pushed on, finally reaching the outskirts of the forest. They stopped to peer in, surveying the area. Luigi could see some Goombas in the distance, but those guys were pretty easy to avoid or overcome if necessary. "I guess we just… go in? Besides those few Goombas I don't really see any obstacles, but we'll keep our eyes and ears peeled," Luigi reasoned. Mario nodded. "Our best bet looks like just walking straight through."
Peach stared up at the sky, a hand over her eyes to shield them from the sun. "We'd better make haste, it's already almost noon and we've got a lot of land to cover." The trio started into the forest, tightening their grip on their bags. "So, Mario," Luigi started. "Is there anything really important about Tatanga we should know? Things that would help us defeat him like a weakness or anything?"
Mario was quiet as he thought. "None that I can really think of, he had his little spaceship when I encountered him which made him pretty formidable but I never really got to encounter him one-on-one. Once his ship was toast he fled. But after seeing that broadcast I'm not so sure he would be weak without it, he looks a lot stronger since the last time I saw him and now knowing we're on his turf we potentially have a few more enemies to overcome, but to be honest it seems like his subjects are mostly just harmless townsfolk, and I'm pretty sure I saw some humans on that broadcast so we can maybe slip by most of them undetected." Luigi nodded, processing the new information. "It sounds like most of our effort would be on sneaking around at that point! At least until we get Tatanga alone, or find Daisy and get her out of there," Peach reasoned. "Yeah and most of the enemies I encountered were just the residents of the four sub-kingdoms of Sarasaland that he hypnotized anyway, I don't think they'll be an issue this time around," Mario finished.
"He hypnotized those guys… Do you think he maybe hypnotized Daisy too? She didn't pull away from him or look really uncomfortable or anything, it just seemed kind of weird." Luigi furrowed his brow, concerned for what else Tatanga could do. "Daisy is smart, Luigi. She could be playing along so she can plan an escape, or at least so we could maybe make correspondence with her and he wouldn't suspect it. It's super unlikely he knows we're here in Sarasaland, and even if we weren't he wouldn't think we'd know how to get to his home planet," Mario assured him. "We have the upper hand, no doubt."
This calmed Luigi down a bit. Even after Peach's initial pep talk he still felt uneasy, but Mario's reasoning helped him relax, at least for the time being. He saw some sort of animal in the distance, some kind of raccoon-sized rodent, knocking items down from a tree to some companions. They grabbed the items, fruit presumably, and snacked a bit while under the tree. "Are you guys seeing that?" Luigi gestured to the creatures. "Maybe we should pack up a few of those, it looks like we can probably eat them." Peach nodded. "They look like mangoes! I could definitely use a snack." They walked over, expecting to scare the animals off. They just looked at the overall-clad trio and continued to eat, not making any effort to move. Luigi approached them, reaching up to grab one of the fruits while keeping his eyes on them. They eyed him cautiously, but made no effort to attack or flee. Luigi continued grabbing the fruits and stuffed a bag with them. He tossed one to Peach and one to Mario. Peach bit into it ravenously, raising her eyebrows in pleasant surprise. "It… IS a mango!" Peach inspected it. The colour was maybe a little different but it tasted the exact same.
Luigi popped the bag in his backpack, and the three departed, snacking as they went. "Is it weird to anyone else how… earthly this place is? First the humans we saw in that broadcast, then these animals that look pretty much exactly like raccoons or something, then the fruit?" Mario puzzled. Luigi nodded. "I was thinking the same thing. Maybe… I don't know. This might seem weird but… do you think those aliens were maybe a human colony and just… evolved somehow? They do look pretty much exactly like humans except the skin colour and the facial features, but they bear some similarity too." Peach perked up. "I remember hearing that some of the Sarasaland royals from all four kingdoms, generations ago, were really into space exploration. Maybe some of them settled on that planet?"
"Maybe we can corner one of the aliens and ask them some questions. I think Daisy mentioned something about the space exploration to me too a while ago, but she dismissed it as rumours." Luigi let the information swim in his head, continuing to consider the possibilities.
Later
Mario looked up at the sky through the trees. The sun was getting kind of low on the horizon - they probably had another two hours left of sunlight. "Alright, do we want to maybe stop to eat something really quick and see how far we can get before sundown afterwards? Then we can set up camp?" he asked. "Sounds good to me!" Peach chirped. She sat down on a fallen tree nearby and opened up her pack, pulling out sandwiches for the group. They ate together on the log, finally feeling the soreness of that day's travels set in. Luigi scarfed down his sandwich - he was pretty hungry, but he really just wanted to cover more ground. There was still sunlight - why should they waste that sitting around and camping?
Mario and Peach finished not long after and packed everything back up. They walked for another hour, starting to hear the unmistakable sounds of nocturnal animals ring through the forest. Once the sun was down they fixed up their tent and started a fire. "I'll take the first watch," Luigi stated. "Luigi, I'm sure out of the three of us you're the most stressed. Why don't I take first watch and you get some sleep?" Mario replied. "That's the thing, Mario. I can't sleep." Luigi smiled weakly at him. "I'll come wake you up in a few hours." Mario patted his shoulder knowingly, then followed Peach into the tent, leaving the bag of power-ups with Luigi.
Thank you for reading! Let me know what you think! Next chapter is gonna be the wedding, stay tuned ;) I'm going to try to bang out a few chapters over the next little while so I have a vault to upload from while I work on more, so it may be a little bit until a new upload but I will attempt to work quickly! I have general ideas for the next few chapters so it shouldn't take me too long, and I just got through a pretty busy section of school so I'll have a little bit of a break until April :) see you soon!