Chapter 8 Somber Sonata Part 1

Junior kept his eyes directed outside the airship. The castle; his home, his haven, and his abode, was approaching within record time. Speaking of time, he looked into the sky and saw the time rift. He gulped. That wretched thing had formed a while back. It hadn't reopened, thankfully enough, but it still made Junior nervous. Some of the best Koopa troopa servants had gotten sucked into the rift, and Junior knew full well that that could have easily been him. He felt shudders race up and down his spine and turned away from the window.

Now, instead of looking at the window, his attention was on the notebook that Mama Pecah had given him. He flipped it open, studying the pages that were filled with his father's story. He then turned toward the next page, which was blank. It rested in anticipation, ready to be written in, ready to consume the thoughts and facts. Who was Junior to deny a piece of paper its life's purpose?

"Land ho!"

Junior breathed a sigh of relief. He went up onto the deck and watched as his father lowered the ladder. Putting the notebook and pen into his hammerspace, he went over, gripped the ladder's first rails, and began to descend. Once his feet were safely on the ground, he let out a breath.

Although, what emotion was attached to that breath, Junior did not entirely know. Was it excitement? Nervousness? Or could it maybe be both? Junior was willing to bet that it was both; after all, this task that he had to do next required him to talk to his siblings. Fun fun.

Okay, maybe the sarcasm was a little unearned. Not all of Junior's siblings would beat him into oblivion if he approached them. Like Lemmy, for example. Lemmy was a sweetie pie. Always happy, always smiling, always playful. Maybe Junior should ask Lemmy about his past first?

Yeah, yeah! That was an excellent idea! With a spring in his step, Junior skipped into the castle. He grinned at some of the Koopa Troopa servants he passed. To those who were new, this seemed like no big deal. However, Junior got some looks of surprise from those who had been working at the castle for a while. He almost laughed; smiling wasn't that big of a deal! It was just...smiling!

The more that Junior thought about talking to his second eldest brother, the more excited he became. Lemmy was probably his favorite sibling. They had the closest thing to a bond that Junior had with any of his siblings. He loved everything about Lemmy; his puns (they made him laugh), his short stature (they were about the same height, so Junior was level with him), and, of course, his contagious happy go lucky attitude. Just thinking about it drenched Junior's soul in warmth.

Junior continued on with his merry little leaps as he made his way up the stairs of the east wing. The second floor was where his siblings' bedrooms were. All the doors were closed, which Junior honestly didn't mind. He needed to get to one bedroom in particular; he wasn't a fan of the idea of seeing the Koopalings do all sorts of random things in their rooms.

Anyway, he made his way over to the far end of the hallway. Not even bothering to knock, he entered the room that Lemmy and Ludwig shared.

"Lemmy?" he asked.

No answer. In fact, it was pretty silent in the room, which was surprising considering that two people lived in it. He went in, stepping over a squeaky toy as he did so. He saw that Lemmy was not in his bed. He was not anywhere.

"Lemmy, where are you?" Junior asked. He opened up the door to the bathroom and turned on the light. "Lemmy?"

Unfortunately (or thankfully), Lemmy was not in the bathroom. Junior let out a huffy breath and exited, slamming the door behind him as he did so. Lemmy shouldn't be that hard to find!

"Lemmy, where the World Eight have you gone off to?" Junior asked with his hands on his hips.

Suddenly, Junior heard the ruffling of blankets. He looked over at Lemmy's bed, but saw that it was empty. He was confused until he saw movement coming from the opposite end of the room. A certain blue haired Koopa sat up in his bed, rubbed his eyes, and yawned. Junior felt a lump form in his throat when he saw the sleepy eyed Ludwig cast him a look.

Ludwig blinked. "Junior?" he asked groggily. "What are you doing here?"

Junior seized up. He didn't know how Ludwig would react to him being in his room, but he knew that it couldn't be good. His heart pumped, worry encased him as he braced himself for Ludwig to throw a fireball or electric bolt at him.

"I...I'm looking for Lemmy."

Ludwig blinked and rubbed his eyes again. "Lemmy?" When Junior nodded, he got out of bed and straightened out his hair. This only made Junior's nervousness increase some more. "I don't know where he is," Ludwig said. He adorned a puzzled look. "I hadn't seen him at all today. You would think that he would at least say good morning to me."

Junior slowly nodded. "Yeah. It's...weird."

Ludwig shrugged his shoulders. "I'm sure you'll find him eventually. What do you want to ask him?"

Junior bit his lip? Should he tell Ludwig?...Sigh why not? After all, Junior was doomed to ask Ludwig about his past eventually. He might as well rip the band aid clean off before it got too old.

"I...I was just wondering." He pulled the notebook out of his hammerspace. "I wanted to ask him about his childhood."

"His childhood?" Ludwig looked down at the notebook. "Are you gonna write it down or something?"

"Well...yes. You see, Mama Peach taught me about this thing called scrapbooking, where you capture moments from the past so you can preserve them forever."

"Oh yeah!" Ludwig smiled. "I've heard of that. It's kind of a shame that Koopa culture doesn't do it more often. There are so many enriching, wonderful moments that happen during an individual's life that need to be passed down to generations."

Junior seized up a little bit. "I just...I just want to do it because it sounds cool."

"Oh." Ludwig's face fell a little bit. "Well, when you think about it, it is cool for the reasons that I stated."

Junior shrugged. "I guess." He looked up at Ludwig cautiously. "Um...do you think I can ask you about your past?"

"My past?" Ludwig adorned a consternated look. "Um, I...I guess. I mean, if you're trying to get the whole family I….I suppose you must."

Junior smiled, relief overtaking him. "Thanks, Ludwig." He sat down on Lemmy's bed and got his notebook and pen ready. "So, where do you want to start?"

Ludwig nervously sat down on the bed. There was a pause before he sighed. "Well...I suppose I could start by saying that I had done some horrible things in the past. Really horrible."

Junior nodded. "You mean like the Frostwall incident?"

Ludwig hesitated. "Umm...yes." he cleared his throat. "But even before that, I wasn't exactly the most….well behaved child."

Junior, surprised, leaned forward as Ludwig took another deep breath and began telling his tale.

…

"KAMEK!" I screamed on that day. "GET YOUR TAILLESS BUTT IN HERE!"

I stamped my foot as I waited for Kamek. He was taking forever. I really wanted him to come get me. After all, at that point in time, it had been half past noon. He should know by now that I wanted him to come get me so that he could feed me some Baked Alaska. I shouldn't have to wait.

"KAMEK!" I screeched again. I screamed as loud as I could, so much so that I hurt my throat. Thankfully, he came in within no time at all. He was all out of breath, and there were stains on his robes.

"Yes….yes your highness?" He asked.

I glared at him and crossed my arms. "Do you know what time it is?"

Kamek looked up at the clock. His face fell. "Oh. It's that time again, isn't it?"

"Yes! I demand that you feed me Baked Alaska!"

Kamek took off his glasses and wiped them with his robe. I remember him looking weary, like he was slowly starting to get fed up with my antics. Honestly, in hindsight, I don't blame him in the least.

"Master Ludwig….I'm afraid we haven't made any Baked Alaska today."

I glared at him. "What?" My fingers began to smoke.

Kamek swallowed a lump in his throat. "We...we ran out of ingredients. If you want, we can make another dessert for you?"

My glare got more concentrated. "I...want...Baked….ALASKA!"

Just like that, my body erupted in flames. I didn't feel them, of course, but they made Kamek look all shades of terrified. I sprawled myself out on the ground. I kicked and screamed, demanding that he get the ingredients for my Baked Alaska. After all, I deserved it. At least, that's what I thought at the time

"Get me Baked Alaska, get me Baked Alaska, GET ME BAKED ALASKA!"

Chairs erupted in flames, the chandeliers above the table rattled and shook. If I had gone on any longer, something definitely would have broken. Thankfully, Kamek stopped me.

"Alright! Alright. If you wish to have Baked Alaska, you may have your Baked Alaska," Kamek practically exhaled.

I quit it with my tantrum and rose to my feet. "Yes, I will." I glared at him. "I want that dessert within the next half hour. Do you understand?"

Kamek's jaw dropped. "But….but Master Ludwig! It takes longer than that to bake; at least two hours!"

I squinted my eyes at him even more. "Do. You. Un. Der. Stand?"

Kamek's mouth continued to gape open before he sighed. "As you wish, master."

...

Junior stared at Ludwig, his jaw dropping. Ludwig gave the Koopa Prince an embarrassed smile.

"Yeah," he said. "That was a long time ago. I think I was about five at the time."

Junior's eyes practically bulged from their sockets. "Dude! You were a spoiled brat!"

Ludwig chuckled, his tone tinged with shame. "Yeah." He rubbed his arm. "I'm not proud of it." He let out a breath. "Since I was born with superpowers, nobody wanted to say no to me. After all, I could pretty much burn them to ashes if I got mad enough."

Junior nodded. He knew exactly what the oldest Koopaling was talking about. After all, wasn't that the whole reason why Junior himself was afraid of speaking to Ludwig?

"Well, you clearly aren't like that now."

"No, I'm not," said Ludwig as he shook his head. "Unfortunately, it took me a long, grueling time to learn the lessons that I had learned. I ended up doing some terrible things in order to learn them." He nodded. "Like the Frostwall incident."

Junior nodded. And wrote that down. "Like….the….Frost….wall….incident." He pressed the pen down on the paper to form a period. "Are there any other things that you did? Like, anything after the Frostwall incident?"

Ludwig looked thoughtful. "Ummm...well, let's see; that happened when I was seven…." He titled his head toward the ground. "I...I'm not sure."

Junior looked down at his notebook, which only had one page full of information. "Well, I need to have something that I can put in the scrapbook!" He looked around the room, focusing at first on Lemmy's side, as that was where all the toys rested. However, his eyes soon fell upon the music cases that Ludwig owned. They were stacked up against the window, arranged neatly by height. That was when Junior got an idea.

"How did you get into music?" he asked.

Ludwig blinked before smiling. "That's...actually an interesting story. I think I can tell you about that."