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Jeshi: ^.^ Heehee…now for the wonderful chapter 6 ^.^

Larry: O_O…Is this story going to be long?

Jeshi: Well, it's certainly getting there! ^.^ It'll be longer than my Zelda story, "The Very End" that's for sure! And that one was 12 chapters long!

Larry: O_O!!

Jeshi: _ ::AHEM::the disclaimer?

Larry: O_O Oh yeah! ^_^;;; Jeshi doesn't own anything from Mario, so don't sue her!

Jeshi: _..Uh..thanks…I guess…
~~

Larry traveled for the rest of the day and all through the night. He had had no sleep whatsoever , and it hadn't caught up to him the next morning either, when he finally ventured into yet another small town.

People there gave him weird looks, and some even cowered away from him. Did that mean that they knew who he was? He slowly approached a man standing around by a sign that said, "Resare." That must have been the town name then…but he didn't know where it was. And he didn't know where his dad's castle was from here.

"Excuse me.." Larry asked wearily. NOW the sleep was catching up to him. He could feel his eyelids dropping though he was standing there talking to this man.

"Get away from me, koopa!!" the man cried hysterically, and ran away from him. Larry just stood there, eyelids drooping and completely exhausted.

People were watching him as he found a spot by a wall of a building somewhere and sat down against it. He was almost asleep too when something poked him.

He looked up to see a man with a broom poking him quite hard in the ribs.

"Hey you!" the man said grumpily, "you're scaring away my customers, get out of here, you filthy lizard!"

Larry slowly got up, wobbling. He really WAS tired. The man shoed him away, and he continued down the street, dizzy with sleepiness. He had suddenly walked into another man.

This man just looked at him this time, though. He was staring at Larry wide-eyed, as if he was expecting him to do something. After, he gave a sympathetic look.

"What's the matter, koopa?" the man finally asked. Oh, that explained the staring at him weird thing….this guy knew that he was a koopa…but why was he asking what was the matter?

"I…can't find..my home.." Larry answered sleepily. He yawned and almost fell over.

"Where is your home, maybe I could help?" the man asked.

Larry shook himself a bit to try to wake him up. This man was going to try to help him find the castle? Though he KNEW that Larry was a koopa?! Odd..very odd.

"It's…in Dark World.." Larry answered. The man stared at him a bit longer.

"Hmmm…well, I've heard of it…never been anywhere near there, or anything like that…but I can help you a bit," the man said. He then pointed to a cave at the far end of the town, "you see that cave there? If you go through there, you'll eventually come out somewhere near the Mushroom Kingdom I think…" (A/N: I don't know if that was right or not…meh, who cares? You all know what I'm talking about! ^.^)

Larry stared ahead at the dark cave a few ways away. That lead to the Mushroom Kingdom? Well, then. He'd definitely want to take the cave then…but what if he got lost even more? Hmmm, not that THAT was possible…but it was worth a shot, right?

He tiredly wobbled to the cave, and entered into the darkness of it. Everything around him was dark and moist, and it smelled strongly of…dirt…duh…he could barely see anything…more like the very thin outlines of all the rocks and stuff in his way.

He suddenly stopped. There was something in his way. But what was it? He squinted at it wearily It was an animal. It looked to be half hippo and half moose. It had the head of a moose, and a body of a hippo!!! What WAS this strange creature?! It looked at him, and seemed to glare. What was it doing?

"Hippopomoose!" It cried suddenly. The creature charged at him. Larry ran like hell, if you wanted to put it basically. (A/N: No, the Hippopomoose is NOT an actual character nor an actual animal. It is simply a figment of Larry Koopa's imagination…or more like mine and Kaira-chan's imaginations…XD It is pronounced "Hip-pop-oh-moose" if you are wondering…)

The little koopa ran as fast as he could, slipping on the wet ground and tripping over rocks and other forms of boulders along the way. It wasn't long until he finally just fell down a slope in the cave, which sent him down even further in the dark and he landed in an underground-like lake in the cave.

You could say that the splash woke him up some more. But the only problem that Larry was having now was trying to find the energy to swim. He was so exhausted, he could barely keep his head above the water. At every chance he got, he gasped deeply for air, but then sunk again when he got back up. And each time he sunk lower as he lost what was last of the energy he had left. Finally, he sank. He was too tired to swim now.

He looked around in the dark water, and watched the particles of whatever float around him. Everything was a dark turquoise colour..that is, if it even WAS turquoise..it was so dark, he couldn't really tell himself. And now it was getting darker too.

'Bye, guys..', he thought silently to himself, 'bye, Dad…'

Suddenly, he was swept back up to the surface of the water. His head was out of the water now…he could actually breathe oxygen..well, minus the hydrogen, right? He looked around excitedly, wondering how he got back up here. He then looked down, to realise that he was sitting on an animal…

It…was a dolphin….

"What the?!! Dolphins aren't supposed to be in the caves!!!!" Larry yelled suddenly. He froze then, listening to his voice echo loudly off the walls of the cavern, repeating, gradually silencing, "in the caves!!….the caves…caves…"

The dolphin just cried happily, Its own voice echoing. It started swimming across the underground lake…whatever it was.

"Hey, hey!! Stop that!! I want off, I fell In here by accident, you stupid animal!!" Larry cried. The dolphin just kept making its cry and kept swimming, regardless of what Larry ordered him to do.

Larry looked around…even if he hadn't fallen in the underground lake, he wouldn't have been able to get around anyway…there was no way around the lake!!…Hmm…maybe that was what this dolphin was in here for? To help anyone in the cave to get across?

He thought of this as quite convenient, and started to relax a bit…even though he was still quite jumpy about falling back into the water. And he tried the best he could to keep from falling asleep again. But that was actually quite hard to do. He couldn't do very much just sitting there, but he tried to move as frequently as he could, trying not to 'just rest a minute.'

At long last, he could partially see what seemed to be ground, with a lighter tone surrounding it. That must mean that the exit from the cave was nearby!

He held on tight as they got closer and closer. Soon, he would be getting off of the dolphin's back, and then he'd be back on land! He'd leave the cave, and find his way to the Mushroom Kingdom, then after he'd find his way there, he'd definitely be able to find his way home!!

He couldn't wait to see his brothers and sister, and his dad too! But then a thought crossed his mind. What if his brothers and sister didn't miss him? What if his dad didn't care that he was gone? What if none of them cared? What if none of them noticed that he was gone? Well, surely they MUST have, right? Right???

He heard splashing. He looked ahead. Something was coming. But what was it? He could see something swimming around in the water a little bit in front of him. When they got close, it suddenly jumped out of the water at them. It was a Cheep cheep…

~~
Jeshi: Aww, isn't it cute?

Larry: O_O…A "Hippopomoose?"

Jeshi: u.u…yes, a Hippopomoose. Kaira-chan and I have very stupid imaginations…and very active ones at that…

Larry: *rolls eyes* Obviously.

Jeshi: HEY!! He's a figment of YOUR imagination too you know!!

Larry: O_O?! That THING is in MY imagination?!

Jeshi: -_-; In the story, yes!

Larry: AHH!! O_O!

Jeshi: Oh, just in case if I confused anyone..yes, Larry was hallucinating the whole Hippopomoose…there is no such thing…except in our active imaginations that Nintendo lets us, the gamers, believe in.

Larry: O_o? Where did that come from?

Jeshi: -_-; I have sent Nintendo e-mails with questions about numerous things..and EVERY SINGLE TIME, the send me the EXACT same e-mail!! It's an automatic e-mailing service!! And they think their service is GOOD to us?!?!?! Meh, maybe in REPAIRS to your game consoles, but not when it comes to questions!! They ALWAYS say like, "We leave that up to the active imagination of our gamers."…*shudders* It's scary…

Larry: O_O…

Jeshi: -_-; Anyway, I hope to have the next chapter up VERY soon, people! ^.^
~~