Soon Marth was rushing around, fixing himself up as well as possible, seeing that it was no use to try and turn the excited Toad away. 'I need to take a shower…' Marth thought. 'There's no time for that, though…' Marth glanced up at his clock. He didn't want to be late for dinner…that would be rude. 'Where is my comb!?' Marth thought irritably, rummaging around through his drawers. He rammed the last one shut and ran a hand through his hair, glancing around the room as to where it may have run off. He turned back to his drawers, prepared to search again, only to see that his comb was lying on the polished surface the entire time.

            "Marth and Toad should be leaving soon, yes?" Asked Toad, rocking back and forth on his tiny feet.

            "Yes, yes. Give me a moment." Marth said, taking out his jeweled "tiara", as Link called it, ran the comb through his disturbed hair a few times, then shoved a different one in. Searching through the tiny hotel closet, he found another cape, clipped, and tied it onto his armor, and at last rushed up to Toad. "Alright."

            "Is Marth ready?" Toad asked in his squeaky voice.

            "Yes. Marth is—Yes, I am." Marth said, taking a few deep breaths from rushing around so quickly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
            Toad led Marth out of the hotel, and to a very thick cloud with a steering wheel sticking out in the front, where a yellow…thing was seated.

            "Marth get in first, yes?" Toad said, reaching as high as he could and nudging the small of Marth's back.

            Marth climbed aboard, wondering if riding in a large amount of water particles would hold his weight. "Is this safe?" He asked cautiously.

            "Of course it is safe. Toad borrowed it from Prince Mallow." Toad said, climbing in as well.

            "Isn't Prince Mallow supposedly negative twenty pounds?" Marth asked, feeling himself begin to sink.

            "Prince Mallow does not speak his weight." Toad said, even though Marth wasn't expecting him to answer.

            Soon they had taken off from the ground and were flying above the clouds. Marth couldn't see where they were going at all, but mostly concentrated on shifting himself every so often when he felt a breeze begin to pass his rear end. Soon there were many platter-sized holes in the cloud taxi and Marth was beginning to worry. Relief washed over him as the cloud taxi began to slow down and depart from the clouds. He now had to get on all fours to keep from falling through an inner-tube sized hole where his rear had sunk through many times.

            "Home." Toad sighed, apparently having no problems with sinking through the cloud.

            "Finally." Marth muttered, hopping from the cloud taxi before it had even reached hovering point. 

            "Marth Babe!" Peach yelled excitedly from the Castle entrance.

            "'er…Peach…babe?" Marth said half to himself.

            Peach ran up to him and grabbed his hand, then withdrew quickly. "You're all wet!"

            "Well, when you're sitting on a carpet of condensed water for twenty minutes, that tends to happen." Marth said with a warm chuckle afterward. "Forgive me, I had no time to wash." Marth said, almost saying he didn't think she would come, but figured that'd sound too rude.

            "Well come in, you can dry off by the fire, babe." Peach said, chewing her gum a few times, then taking it out and placing it in Toad's outstretched hands, making Toad's face gleam with delight.

            Marth was led through the large Castle doors and into a very large room with many sets of stairs. Peach wove in and out of corridors and halls, up and down cases of stairs until, finally, she reached the dining room. A table at least thirty feet long, candle sticks lining it every foot or so, chairs two feet apart wound their way along the table. Marth took a deep breath, being strongly reminded of home. An inviting fire was crackling in excitement to see it's seeker on the other side of the room. Marth glanced down the table to see Mario trying to make conversation with a rather sulky looking Zelda.

            "Where is Link?" Marth asked Peach, while following her to the other end of the table where the others sat.

            "He couldn't make it. Apparently the wound you gave him this afternoon went straight through his bone instead of just his skin, which takes longer to heal than just sliced skin, babe." Peach informed Marth. At these words, Zelda bit her lip, and was obviously holding back tears.

            "I…I'm sorry to hear that." Marth said cautiously, not really knowing what and what wouldn't make Zelda burst out crying.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
            Moments later, three dotted hats came scurrying across the floor, holding a large silver platter, containing a large cooked goose, surrounded by cooked onions and carrots. Marth was a little puzzled, staring at the hats, but as they lifted the platter onto the table, their hats revealed tiny people, tiny identical Toads. Marth grinned, seeing these cute little men who looked as though they were still children run off, back through the door they came.

            "Do they all look the same?" Marth asked Peach, who was trying as hard as Mario to engage Zelda in conversation.

            "The Toads? Ya." Peach said shortly, and then went back to trying to get Zelda to speak, but it was no use.

There was a long nasty silence, waiting for the rest of the food to be brought out, only to be broken by a short, but loud "Phut". Peach's eyes widened, looking at everyone, who seemed to be staring at one another. Marth couldn't help but grin.

"Who did that? It smells." Peach said, waving her napkin to waft away the smell.

"Who smelt it, dealt-a it." Mario said, staring at Peach.

"Ah, but he who denied it, supplied it." Marth said with a grin, staring pointedly at Mario, who turned as red as his cap.

Everyone burst out laughing, forgetting the incident, yet Zelda still looked as sullen and gloomy as before.

"Come on, Zelly, I'm sure he'll be fine!" Peach said, nudging Zelda's shoulder with her elbow.

Zelda suddenly stood up and threw down her napkin, storming off through the doors to her right.

"Where is she going?" Marth asked, staring after Zelda.

"That way leads to the guest rooms…I hope she doesn't do one of those crying phases again." Peach said, as four more Toads came rushing out, all supporting a large bowl of salad.

Marth frowned and stood up, placing his napkin on the table lightly, and headed off in the direction Zelda had gone.

Mario looked rather delighted to see it was only Peach and himself alone. He gingerly reached over to grab Peach's hand, but she stood up when she saw it coming and left in the direction the others had gone as well. Mario looked rather put down and sat by himself, but then found pleasure in being the only one around to eat the entire goose, and started immediately.