Chapter 7: On a Roll

Luigi groaned as he rubbed his head and sat up in bed. "Bed?" he thought. He looked around the room he was in. Toad was standing next to the bed, which was rather fancy. The room was kind of large, with a high ceiling and several interesting-looking statues decorating it.

"Toad? What happened?" Luigi asked, "Weren't we just leaning on a tree eating lunch?"

"Well, we were, but the royal servants carried you to the palace," Toad explained.

"Oh, this is the castle?" Luigi inquired.

"Yeah," Toad answered.

"So, have you met the king yet?" Luigi asked.

"Actually, he's dead. I rule the kingdom now," said a voice from the doorway. Luigi and Toad looked over to the door and saw Princess Daisy standing on the threshold.

"Wow," Luigi murmured to himself, having never seen the princess before. He thought she was rather attractive, but tried not to show it.

"Luigi, this is Princess Daisy. She's princess of Sarasaland," Toad introduced.

"Just call me Daisy," she told them, "Princess Daisy makes me sound like I'm not just a regular person." The boys nodded their heads. "So, what brings you two to Sarasaland?" Daisy asked.

Toad explained, "Well, we were coming here with Princess Toadstool-"

"You don't actually call her Princess Toadstool, do you?" Daisy asked.

"Uh, no, we call her Peach. Anyway, she's princess of Mushroom Kingdom, and I'm her right-hand man. I'm not sure why she wanted to meet with the king, although, she'll have to discuss it with you when she gets here instead," Toad elaborated.

"What do you mean, 'When she gets here?'" Daisy asked.

"When we were crossing the desert, we got caught in a whirlwind and separated-," Luigi explained.

"Why would you cut across the desert?" Daisy asked.

"Because it was on the way here," Toad answered.

"No, I mean why didn't you just go south, around the desert?" Daisy clarified.

"Pardon?" Toad blurted.

"You mean there was a way around the desert?" Luigi asked.

"Yeah," Daisy answered. "It's crazy to cut through the desert. There are whirlwinds."

"Yeah, we know," Luigi said. He and Toad looked at each other both thinking about Mario and Yoshi and their so-called unavoidable route through the desert. "Anyways, because we cut through the desert and got caught in a whirlwind, Peach and the others are somewhere else trying to get here," Luigi explained.

"The others?"

"Well, usually when Peach travels, or even when she doesn't, something goes wrong, usually her getting kidnapped," Luigi elaborated, "And my brother is like the hero of Mushroom Kingdom, and me and our buddy Yoshi are kind of back up. So Mario, Yoshi, my baby-sister, Jessie, and me were escorting Peach, Ian, and Toad here." At the mention of Jessie and Ian, Daisy's expression showed a bit of what looked like sadness. But it quickly disappeared.

A little later she was showing Luigi to the kitchen so he could get something to eat, Toad having eaten when Luigi was knocked out. "You know, my father and mother visited Mushroom Kingdom about thirteen years ago," Daisy remarked, "They took my sister, she was too young to be without them, but I was fifteen already, so I stayed here."

"Oh, I think I remember that. I was about the same age," Luigi replied, "Peach's dad invited my family to come over. My parents got to meet them, but we had to hang with Peach while Jessie played with Ian and the little girl. We have a picture of them somewhere, I think-"

"Who's Ian? I remember you said you were escorting him with Peach," Daisy asked.

"Yeah, that's Peach's baby-brother," Luigi answered.

"Oh, is he about the same age as Jessie?"

"Yeah, same age. Oh, we had a fighting tournament about a month after Jessie showed up, and she and Ian tied for first. Pretty tough kids."

"When she showed up?"

"Yeah, she and Ian both crawled into a pipe when they were one. There was a pipe outbreak." They walked in silence for a few minutes.

"My sister crawled into a pipe when she was one too," Daisy said.

"Come to think of it," they said at the same time, "It was when the king was in Mushroom Kingdom!"

"That picture!" Luigi exclaimed.

"What picture?" Daisy asked.

"We found Ian at the Smash Bros. Tournament. When we got him home we later identified him as the prince using a picture of Jessie, a little boy we didn't recognize until we found Ian, and another little girl we weren't sure of!" Luigi told her.

"A little girl?" Daisy asked hopefully.

"Yeah!"

"Did she have brown hair?"

"I think so!"

"That's my sister! Since Jessie and Ian just came back do you think it's possible that my sister is back too?"

"Maybe!"

"Have you seen any other girls near your home?"

"No, the only human kids there are Jessie and Ian!"

"Yes-! Wait- no. Darn it!"

"We were on a roll too!" Finally they got to the kitchen. Daisy left Luigi and headed off to take care of princess business.