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Jeshi: And now chapter 3! ^-^ *rolls eyes at Kaira-chan* Whatever, believe whatever funky shit YOU want. Lol! ^-^;; You are doing nothing but lying to yourself. =)
Larry: O_O… Am I missing something again?
Jeshi: ^-^ Yes, the disclaimer.
Larry: O_O.. Oh yeah…^_^ Jeshi does not own anything from Mario.
Jeshi: *pets Larry* Good boy! ^-^ lol
Larry: @_@ I wish she wouldn't do that.
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After Ludwig had entered his bedroom that night, he walked over to his working desk where he found his 'yet to be named' invention. The truth was, he never did know how he got the idea for it. He had a feeling some nights ago, that something like it would be needed. For what, he never knew.
He picked it up and examined it again. Actually, it looked more like some sort of ray gun that an alien would use in the old science fiction movies. He raised his eyebrow at it.
" Interesting…" he said to himself while setting it back down carefully. It still needed work to be done on it, so he was sure that it was still quite fragile.
He had then climbed into his own bed, thinking about what Melinda had said out in the hallway. He had only heard her say "I will get rid of the little brats, and no one will ever know" but that was all he needed to hear to realise that she was up to something. And it involved him and his siblings.
He lay there and stared up at the ceiling, thinking of what to do. He was not sure exactly how long he lay there thinking, but it was quite a while, even for him. In the end he decided to see what would happen before he really assumed anything. You never know, she could have been talking about other children, right? Or not… Melinda did not know any other children, did she? He did not want to think about it anymore. He let sleep take over him, and hopefully he would have an idea tomorrow.
Unfortunately, that idea never did come for Ludwig. But he had come to the decision of keeping a close watch over his siblings, and keeping his eye on Melinda.
That day though, Melinda had dragged everyone outside for the afternoon. They had gone for a walk, some ways from the castle. Far enough so that they found a lake, where a giant sleeping Cheep Cheep was to be hiding. A nice walk led them all around the huge lake, with Bowser and Melinda up ahead, linking arms. ( a/n: Not surprising, huh? Lol ) The koopalings followed closely behind, with Ludwig bringing up the rear end. Every time his siblings looked back at him, he was watching Melinda. Larry watched Ludwig while he walked, and then nudged Roy.
" Roy, what is Ludwig doing?" he whispered to him worriedly. Roy glanced back at Ludwig, then answered, "why should I care?" Morton had suddenly hopped to them.
" So… what is this? A whispering party???" Morton whispered excitedly, looking from Larry to Roy. Roy glared at him.
" Go away!" he hissed at Morton.
" What is Ludwig doing?" Larry asked Morton. Roy clapped a hand to his forehead, rolling his eyes.
' That's right, Larry, you just go ahead and ask Morton..' Roy thought sarcastically.
" Oh, I see… well, he appears to be looking at something, but what? I do not know, no one knows, not even you, and that is why you are asking me, because you do not know, and none of us know actually. What is it? What could it be? And WHY are we whispering?!" Morton said, raising his voice slightly. Roy shushed him. Larry looked around to see if anyone else was listening in. He had noticed that Ludwig had given the three of them weird looks, but he tried to ignore that.
" Because… we just do not want to be heard," Larry replied, looking around again.
" Oh, so it is a secret is it? And if we speak too loud, it will no longer be a secret, but a public discussion, corrrrect?" Morton said smiling. Larry glared at him.
" No! It is not a secret, and it is not a public discussion either, we just wanted to know what was up with Ludwig!" Larry whispered frustrated.
" Oh, well in that case. No one knows what is up with Ludwig, all I know is that up… is the sky, and then down… is the grass and little dirt path that we walk upon, and then there are little bugs and rocks and any other not so nice surprises that any dogs have left behind. And then to the left of us is a little field of odd-looking flowers, and then to the right is-DUCKS!!!!!" Morton suddenly screamed, then took off running into a horde of ducks that panicked and flew away. Others flapped their wings and ran around, mothers collected their children and tried to fly away. Then there were the ones left that hissed and tried to bite at Morton, who was now running around flapping his arms and screaming "honk honk" at the ducks, in hopes of terrorizing them.
Larry and Roy both raised eyebrows at Morton, and then spoke no more for the rest of the walk.
They all stopped and sat down by the lake eventually. While Morton ran around screaming at ducks again, Wendy started picking out flowers. Lemmy sat around talking to Iggy. It was all that Lemmy could do, his father had already had his doubts of taking Lemmy with them because of Lemmy's 'accident' yesterday. Lemmy had convinced Bowser that he was able to walk, but his leg still hurt. Bowser in the end let him go with them, but to keep his cover he decided to just sit around.
Melinda and Bowser continued their planning, all the while Melinda watched Ludwig. Every now and then Ludwig would glance over at her, but then turn away. He had secluded himself away from everyone, and sat staring down at the green-blue and dirty lake. She reached into her purse and pulled out a little tin.
Ludwig saw her take the tin out of her purse. Though he was supposedly looking down at the water, he could see her just fine out of the corner of his eye what she was doing. She had opened it slightly, reached her hand inside and took out something. It was so small that he could not even see it. It must have been some sort of powder, or flakes, or something like that. She sprinkled it into the edge of the water, then shut the tin, and hidden it back in her purse. What was that? And what did she do with it?
He stared long at the area in the water that she had sprinkled the weird substance. There did not seem to be anything different about the water in any way. Actually, the stuff was floating in the water… like fish food? It proved to be quite odd to him as to why she put it in the water, was she trying to attract something? Lure something up to the surface of the water? The giant Cheep cheep?
Ludwig looked over at Lemmy and Iggy, the two of them were sitting there still, but no longer talking. Instead, their attention was directed to him. They were watching him. Why?
" He is looking over at us," Iggy said, still watching Ludwig. Lemmy slowly nodded.
" Yeah… what is he doing anyway?" Lemmy asked. Iggy shrugged, and resumed watching Ludwig. He stared back at them.
" He has been like this all day. It is as if he is waiting for something to happen," Iggy said.
" Yeah, and he keeps watching Melinda too," Lemmy replied. They observed their older brother for some more minutes, then they just decided to watch Roy chase Morton around with a giant stick.
Ludwig was still watching them even after they had stopped watching him. He then directed his attention back to Melinda and Bowser, more likely Melinda. She had done no more with the little tin after that, and the substance had not gone anywhere, but stayed buoyant in the water.
At long last, they had finally gotten up to go home. They started their long walk back to the castle, Ludwig behind everyone again. After some time of walking, Melinda had suddenly let out a small gasp. She had a quick, low conversation with Bowser, then turned around and walked back, passed the other koopalings and up to Ludwig, who stopped abruptly and looked up at her.
" Oh, Ludwig dear," she said sweetly, " I seem to have accidentally left my purse back at the lake, would you be a dear and go retrieve it for me?"
He stood there staring at her. It was true, she did not seem to have the purse with her, but she also could have been hiding it, it WAS that small. But then again, she could have also left it back at the lake. He just nodded.
" Yes, ma'am," he replied inaudibly as he slowly turned and headed back in the direction towards the lake.
Melinda watched Ludwig walk back to the lake. She smiled and mentally congratulated herself on a 'job well done'. She then turned with a little spring in her step, and headed back towards Bowser.
The other koopalings watched her curiously. Lemmy had gotten worried right away. He had never seen her this happy ever since the first night they had met her at the castle. He then worried about Ludwig. Why didn't she just ask him to go instead? Why Ludwig? He looked to see that Iggy was looking up at him worriedly himself. Lemmy just smiled at him and they all continued their trip home.
Ludwig slowly made it back to the lake. He eyed it carefully. He saw the area where Bowser and Melinda had sat.
The purse was not there.
He smiled smugly. Ha, he knew it. But then he wondered about the weird stuff that Melinda had sprinkled in the water earlier. He looked around, and then cautiously crept forward. He had gotten to the edge of the lake, where he looked over, sure to see that the substance was still there. But it was not there. He raised an eyebrow, where had it gone? Did it dissolve in water or any other liquids?
He folded his hands together behind his back and gazed down in the water, trying to see if maybe it just sank some how. He let out a sigh, sure that it was long gone. Whatever happened to it, he was not sure of. But still, something did not seem right about what was going on. About where he was, and WHY the stuff in the water was gone. He looked around again inquisitively, then back down into the dark water. But now there was something else there, something new. There two round, white balls, with little black horizontal slits. Was that… the giant cheep cheep?
Ludwig's eyes went wide as he stared down at the enormous cheep cheep. It stared at him back. Ludwig did not know what to do. He did not want to move, because that was what this cheep cheep obviously wanted him to do. But he could not just stand there all night. He had to move eventually. He swallowed hard and continued staring down at the huge figure. Ludwig then had an idea.
He slowly turned his head to the right, still staring down at the cheep cheep. The cheep cheep's whole body turned with him, its eyes still staring up at Ludwig. Ludwig then turned his head back over to the far left. The cheep cheep did so also, eyes still staring. Ludwig then centred his head back again. The cheep cheep did the same.
" You clever little bugger…" Ludwig muttered. He could not move anywhere without this cheep cheep coming after him, was what Ludwig had concluded. And though it was just a fish, that did not mean that it could not get him if it tried. And by the looks of it, it really looked as though this fish was going to definitely try.
' This is it… I'm going to move…' Ludwig thought. He slowly, while still looking down at the cheep cheep, slid one foot back. Ludwig tried to shift the rest of his body back a bit, but the cheep cheep shook and edged to the surface when he moved. He kept the rest of his body still for a few seconds.
" Heheh…bye," Ludwig muttered to the fish, then quickly pivoted on one foot and tried to break into a run. At the time that Ludwig had pivoted, the cheep cheep had erupted from the waters and grabbed a hold of Ludwig, pulling him in the water with it.
The cheep cheep had a tight hold of Ludwig, but was not trying to eat him. At least, that was how Ludwig had put it, for if it was, it would have done so by now. Instead, the cheep cheep seemed to be swimming down to the bottom of the lake. And this lake was REALLY deep. He struggled to get free from the cheep cheep's mouth somehow, but the cheep cheep was so big and had a good grip on him. Ludwig was already having trouble holding his breath, he did not get that much air to take in before he was submerged in the first place. He continued to fight with the cheep cheep, until it was only holding onto the lower half of his body. He kicked at the inside of the cheep cheep's mouth wildly, while on the outside, he clawed away at the outside of its mouth. He dared not risk biting for the fact that he would end up collecting water in his mouth which would drain out the air. Leaving him with not even enough time to make it to the surface to breathe. Ludwig then kicked with his claws digging into the cheep cheep's mouth on the inside, which made it lose it's grip on Ludwig.
Ludwig broke free and swam as fast as he could to the surface, pacing himself so he would not tire. He squinted his eyes against any odd particles floating in the water, and reached the surface of the lake. He gasped in a huge breath of air, only to be seconds pulled under again by the cheep cheep.
He kicked at it again, and clawed madly. The cheep cheep had then flipped up its tail when it sharply turned its body, which hit Ludwig. He gave out a scream in pain, which never helped him at all. No one could hear him and come to help, and now he had no air to hold in. He spat out any water he had in his mouth ( a/n: Into the… um… water of course… lol ) and clawed back at the giant fish. The cheep cheep made another sharp turn, and its tail flipped up again. Ludwig saw it coming and before it could hit him, he opened his own mouth and bit into its tail as hard as he could while digging his claws into the tail. The cheep cheep gave out some kind of a yelp and let go of him again. Ludwig swam off again.
He could see the edge of the lake, the shore upwards somewhere. He swam in that direction rather than straight up like he had done before. He quickly stuck his head above the water to grab some air before diving under again. Just as he had stuck his head out of the water, the cheep cheep had jumped and went to dive on Ludwig, who had gone back underwater and gotten out of the way before the cheep cheep had caught him. He tried to twist to the left or right from time to time to keep his path from being a straight one. If it was a straight one, the cheep cheep would surely get him again.
He swam up once he saw that the land was almost a straight up swim. He hurried as fast as he could, and he broke out of the water, and struggled to get up onto the land. The cheep cheep had grabbed his foot now and pulled. Ludwig let go of the land, turned around and clawed at the cheep cheep's eyes. Blood seeped around in the water as the cheep cheep shook wildly. Ludwig used the cheep cheep's blindness as an advantage to get out of the water.
He emerged from the water yet again and quickly climbed onto the land. He gasped for air in quick short breaths and tiredly yet quickly pulled himself away from the edge of the great lake. Once he knew for sure that he was safely out of the cheep cheep's reach, he collapsed on the ground, taking in deep, slow breaths. He knew that his heart rate must have been the highest it had ever been in his life, because he could actually hear it beating exceptionally fast. He coughed a couple of times, then lay there, weak and light-headed.
He was not sure exactly how long he had lay there, but he slowly lifted his head when he felt drops of water falling on him. He looked up, the sun was setting and it had just started to rain. As if he was not wet enough already, he got up and wearily made the journey back to the castle.
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While Ludwig was trying to make it back to the castle, his own family was already looking for him inside it.
" I wonder where he could be?!" Iggy said as he ran up and down the hallways. Lemmy sat around in a chair ( a/n: Remember the stairs incident? Lol ) worriedly. He had seen Ludwig go back towards the lake, but what happened to him?! This was not like Ludwig at all, normally he would have been back by now, even earlier. Lemmy looked and saw his dad walk into the room.
" LUDWIG!!" Bowser called. Melinda had come walking up to Bowser.
" Bowser… there was that giant cheep cheep in the lake. It likes to come out when it is very rainy," Melinda said. Bowser stared wide-eyed, then sat down in a chair himself.
" In other words… my oldest son has been eaten by a FISH!?" he said angrily. Melinda patted his hand.
" It's okay… he was a really good boy," she said comfortingly. Bowser just continued to stare. Lemmy sat there, a sickness filling his stomach. That meant that Ludwig was dead. No way, Ludwig could not be dead, could he? Ludwig and the word 'dead' did not go together at all.
It was then that the door opened, and standing there in the now pouring rain was Ludwig. Bowser jumped to his feet when he saw Ludwig. Ludwig walked inside, totally soaked from head to toe and walked up to his dad.
" Sorry I am late.." he said tiredly, " and that purse was no where to be found." His brothers and sister looked at him shocked, but relieved at the same time. Ludwig stood composed with his hands folded behind his back again and stared up at Melinda, who looked almost horrified, as if she had seen a ghost. ( a/n: Hehehe…BOO!! ^-^ )
" Ludwig… how… we thought something had happened to you.." she said nervously. Ludwig grinned maliciously at her.
" Yeah… something COULD have happened, huh?" he said to her. She stared down at him, he grinned at her.
Bowser was relieved with the fact that his son was back and in one piece ( a/n: Just the way he left! Lol ) so he left to his throne room. Melinda followed behind him, now raged with the fact that Ludwig was still alive.
After Melinda and Bowser had left out of earshot, Ludwig shook out his hair and sat down.
" So… our little genius here had an accident?" Roy asked mockingly.
" That was no accident!" Ludwig snapped at him. Roy jumped, the idea of Ludwig ever snapping at him so suddenly must have shocked him. The other koopalings had crowded around Ludwig.
" Well, what happened then?" Lemmy asked. Ludwig looked down gravely at the floor.
" She set it all up. That tin… it must have been some sort of food for the fish, to lure it to the surface, it would then keep a close watch to see if anything else came by. Unfortunately, I was the one that came by after," Ludwig said shaking his head. His siblings raised their eyebrows at him.
" What tin?" Iggy asked him, tilting his head.
" Melinda had a tin today while we were at the lake. She took some kind of fish food out of it and sprinkled it in the water. After we left, she waited until we were a few ways away from the lake, so that if I needed help no one would be able to hear me, she sent ME to go get her purse that she supposedly left behind. I got back to the lake, and it was not there, and inside the water, was the giant cheep cheep that the food had attracted. I tried to run from it and it got me, it tried to drown me, I had to fight my way out of it. I was able to break myself free and I made it back home eventually," Ludwig answered. Lemmy suddenly jumped up.
" She did that?! WHY you?! She tried to kill you!!" Lemmy cried. His brothers and sister went into another state of shock when they all saw that Lemmy was able to stand.
" Lemmy!! I thought you hurt your leg!" Wendy yelled.
" I faked it!" he said.
" You FAKED it?!" cried Iggy. Lemmy nodded violently.
" Yes, because-"
" Melinda wants dad to herself, and she does not want us around," Ludwig interrupted, " Lemmy decided to see if this was true by allegedly 'injuring' himself. It worked because she got mad, and because she got mad, she started talking to herself in the hallways, plotting to get rid of us, and because she started talking to herself, I heard her when she turned the corner. And because of THAT incident, she decided to kill me first! Because I knew what she was doing, and she obviously did not want me to tell you guys OR Dad about it."
The other six koopalings' eyes had again gone wide. They all looked from one to another in silence.
" Hmph… that's what SHE thinks, she can't get rid of us!" Roy said arrogantly. Ludwig jumped up and gave Roy a harsh glare.
" She is MUCH smarter than she appears to be, Roy," he said, "even I was not expecting what happened at the lake." Larry sat around and looked around at his siblings, shaking.
" Well… she can't really get rid of us, can she, Ludwig? I mean… there's seven of us.." he said. Roy gave Ludwig a shove and said, "Yeah! There's seven of us an' one of her! What's she gonna do?!" Ludwig shoved Roy back.
" There is PLENTY of what she could do!! And YOU do not know for sure, do you, Roy!? And she can get rid us, she can kill us even, and she WILL if she has to," Ludwig answered gravely. Roy continued to glare, but said nothing else. They all looked at each other, and there was silence yet again.
" But…but she can't do that, Daddy will believe us if we told him about this," Wendy said, trying to gain some confidence. Ludwig shook his head at her.
" No, Wendy. It will not work. If she has spent enough time with father, then he will choose her word over ours. Because she will have been with him more than us, and he would probably think that we are lying just so that he will spend more time with us," he replied. Wendy huffed and crossed her arms.
" So… what are we going to do?" Iggy asked. They all looked at Ludwig. He had his arms crossed, his eyes closed and his head down. They all knew what that meant. He was thinking. They all sat around in silence, eagerly waiting for one of Ludwig's great plans to come out. At long last, Ludwig opened his eyes and looked up their anxious faces. He frowned at them.
" Nothing.." he said.
" Nothing?! You mean… you have no ideas as to what to do, Ludwig?!" Lemmy asked. Ludwig shook his head.
" Nothing," he repeated. He stared down at the floor.
" And the great and master genius, Ludwig Von Koopa has NO ideas in his superior brain at this time, ladies and gentlemen… it… it's actually kinda scary…" Morton said wide-eyed. He then grew quiet, a feat that has really never been accomplished unless someone told him to shut his yap. Ludwig then looked up at them again.
" Well… the only thing that I CAN think of for the time being is to not be alone," he said. His siblings gave him questioning looks.
" We need to get rid of her before she gets rid of us, correct? Until I have an idea to do so, none of us is to be alone," Ludwig continued, "we will all pair up and stick together. The oldest will be with the youngest ones. Lemmy will take Larry, Roy and Morton will be partners, and then there will be Iggy and Wendy." Roy rolled his eyes when he heard that he was to be paired up with Morton.
" Why do I get the chatter-box?!" Roy demanded.
" Because, YOU have to take the next youngest, which is Morton. The younger ones need an older person to keep them out of trouble and keep them from announcing any plans we come up with, namely MORTON!" Ludwig snapped at Roy again. Roy balled his fist, but did nothing after that.
" What about you, Ludwig?" Lemmy asked him.
" Me? I will be by myself. I will watch over everyone just in case anyone else needs any help at all, but besides that, I am alone," Ludwig answered.
" Now, these are our partners for now. You will stay with them all day, and late into the night, until the two of you go to bed. I will try to set up some sort of communication system for emergencies in the nights, if you need each other or me," Ludwig said, " but until then, NO ONE leaves their partners, not for anything. Have you all got that?"
His siblings all slowly nodded. ( Note that Roy nodded quite reluctantly. )
" I will talk to Dad about it," Ludwig continued, " but I can not guarantee that he will believe me, because Melinda has been around him more than I have been recently."
" I don't care, Ludwig," Roy answered, " I just want that lady outta here before she decides to kill me next!" The others nodded.
" A fight to the death! A seven on one battle, it IS amazing!" Morton cried happily.
" Oh, shut up!!!" Roy yelled at Morton, who cowered for a few seconds, but then got back up again.
" Yeah!!" cheered Larry, " this lady has NO idea who she is messing with, does she?" He got a mischievous grin on his face. Lemmy pet Larry on the head and answered, " Yeah, she's going to regret ever thinking of trying to get rid of us!"
" BUT… everyone has to follow the plans!" Ludwig pointed out, " and WITHOUT arguing!" he directed the last comment to Roy, who just rolled his eyes at Ludwig.
That night, they all left down the hallways in their new ordered pairs and left to bed. Ludwig checked on everyone on his way to his own bedroom. Once he was sure that everyone was safely inside their rooms, he entered his own and approached his working desk again. He stared at his incomplete invention, yet to be worked on. Maybe if the lake incident had not happened today he would have had it finished. He looked at the time, and then sat down and began working on it. He could not care if it was even 12:00am, he wanted to get this done and tonight.
After he had put final touches on the unnamed invention still, he crawled into bed. As he fell asleep, he hoped that he would get ideas soon to lose Melinda before them. He hoped even more that his siblings would actually listen to him.
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Jeshi: O-O!! WOOOOWW!! Two whole chapters done in two days!!! YAY!! *dances*
Larry: O_O…Wow…and this one took you only…how long?
Jeshi: ^-^ One day! Lol
Larry: O_O…
Jeshi: Yeah isn't it great?! ^-^
Larry: O_O…Yes…wonderful…
Jeshi: Just like tomorrow, LEARNERS LICENSE!!! I GET MY LEARNERS LICENSE!!! *runs around in circles* ^-^
Larry: O_O…what's so great about that?
Jeshi: It's great because then I can drive, but only with a qualified driver, someone who has had their drivers license for at least one year! ^-^
Larry: O_O…Ohhh…anyway…everyone review Jeshi's story.
Jeshi: YES, PUH-LEASE!! ^-^..And I thank you to the few people who have reviewed so far, you're all so nice!!
Larry: @_@ Can I go now?
Jeshi: -_-; Yes…but be back for the next chapter…
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