Chapter 2: The Family Curse
Kamek the magikoopa ran up the stairs nearly tripping over his dark blue robe. Casting a simple levitation spell he made his way to the top of the stairs a lot faster. The koopa troopa had said that Bowser and princess Peach were in a guest room waiting but didn't say which one. Kamek didn't have the chance to ask as the koopa had hurried out of his chambers after providing this incomplete information. All the doors to the guest rooms were closed and they could be any where since Peach wasn't always taken to the same room. Kamek opened the first door to find the room was empty. He then opened the second door in that row and found a goomba cleaning. He went on to the third door and that room was empty. "I'm a wizard not a psychic!" Kamek said in obvious frustration. Bowser expected him to show up right away but he didn't know where to find them.
Kamek opened the forth door in that row and once again found nothing. He moved to the fifth door and found a paratroopa kissing a koopa troopa. The paratroopa girl was the first to see the very surprised magikoopa at the door. She quickly pushed her boyfriend away and smiled nervously at Kamek trying to pretend nothing happened. "What's wrong?" He asked surprised by her sudden reaction. "You look like you saw a ghost... actually you have seen Boos before but they don't scare you. You look like you saw a... well I don't know something bad." The koopa troopa said.
The paratroopa signaled for him to turn around. When he did he saw a very angry Kamek. "You two are not supposed to be here. You're supposed to be preparing to fight the Mario brothers! I should turn you into stone and melt you in the nearest lava lake." Kamek said.
At that very moment Bowser's voice was heard all over the castle, and possibly beyond. "Kamek!" The king of koopas screamed at the top of his lugs. He had sent for the magikoopa some time ago and there was no sign of him.
Kamek jumped and held his head. A headache was threatening to start. He rushed out of the room and followed the sound of Bowser's impatient voice. The koopa troopa and the paratroopa smiled at each other. They had gotten lucky. "Well he's gone" the koopa troopa said.
The paratroopa shook her head. "But he might come back. I told you the guest room was not good hiding place. True that there are many rooms but I told you we could still be found."
"How was I to know he was going to check in this room? Kamek doesn't usually go around checking all the guest rooms." The koopa troopa said.
"What if it was Bowser? We were lucky King Koopa called Kamek when he did. If it was the king himself we would be swimming in lave by now." The paratroopa said. She flew out the door with the koopa troopa chasing after.
The goomba that was cleaning another room before came out and saw that a door to another guest room was open. The room was a mess. "Great I just when I thought I finished cleaning there's this." She wondered if someone was doing this on purpose. When she found out she would... well she couldn't really do anything, she was only a goomba after all. But she would tell someone. Yes that's what she would do. But no one except maybe another goomba would care. Oh well if enough goombas listened to her problem maybe they could all join together and teach who ever did this a lesson. But she had no idea who it was.
"Hi" a voice came from the door. The same paratroopa from before with a light blue shell said as she landed pretending she wasn't there before. "Is everything ok?"
The goomba shook her head. "Look at this mess! You'd think someone's been having a war in this room. If I didn't know better I would say a hurricane got trapped in here."
"You're right, it is a bit messy" The paratroopa said, her name was Skyri.
Gabriella the goomba nodded. "I wish I knew who did this but no one would care I'm just a goomba" There was sadness yet at the same time there wasn't It was as if she was used to it by now.
"I care" Skyri said.
"Thanks Skyri" Gabriella said sincerely. Skyri was the only nice paratroopa she knew. Unlike the others she didn't kick goombas around and flew away laughing.
"You're hard to keep up with" a koopa troopa with a yellow shell said.
Skyri shook her head at her boyfriend. "Nah, you're just a slow poke because you can't fly" She said playfully sticking her tongue out at him then flying around the room. She spun around in mid air rapidly as Kerés, the koopa troopa watched.
"Show off!" He jokingly said.
"Kerés there you are" Another koopa troopa this one with a green shell called from the door. "C'mon, Mario should be here soon so we need to be ready."
"Duty calls see ya later." Kerés said as he followed the other koopa not too energetically. Once again their king kidnapped the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom and once again they had to try to stop the Mario brothers from rescuing her. He wondered if it would ever change.
"They'll probably call me to get ready too" Skyri said. "See ya later Gabriella." She zoomed out of the room leaving the goomba to clean the mess. Once out of her hearing distance Skyri nearly laughed her head off. Poor Gabriella would never know that she and Kerés made that mess. Well at least she didn't kick goombas like others did but she couldn't help it but to play a few pranks on them, just a few harmless pranks.
Kamek had quickly arrived at the door to the guest room. He was certain that Bowser's voice came from inside this specific guest room. He was about to open the door but Bowser opened it from the inside fist and screamed "Ka!" into the magikoopa's face. "Mek" the last part was said in a normal tone of voice as Bowser realized that the one he was going to call was in fact standing right in front of him.
Kamek was thankful that he was a magikoopa and could heal his own headaches other wise his head would have exploded by now. "Yes King Bowser?" He asked trying to sound as patient as he could.
"It took you long enough to get here. What happened did you get lost on the way?" Bowser asked. He didn't give Kamek any time to answer before he moved out of the doorway and stood beside the bed looking at the unconscious princess in it. "Heal her."
Kamek stepped into the room feeling some strange energy around the princess. Maybe it was best to try to figure out what was wrong with her before attempting any healing spells. "First I need to identify the true cause of her illness." He chanted some words in a language that only magikoopas understood and the cause was revealed to them. Suddenly Kamek and Bowser were no longer in that room in the castle. Instead they were in another kingdom. Judging by the surrounding area this kingdom was quite old.
"Where are we? Where's Peach? What did you do Kamek?" Bowser asked searching for the princess in the crowd of people that had suddenly appeared. How did they get there?
"Calm down you need to stay still so it's easier for me to maintain the magic. Besides you might trip over something. We're still in the same place this is a vision that will reveal what's wrong with the princess." Kamek explained.
Bowser was quite confused. How could it be possible for this place, where ever it was to be the cause of Peach's illness? Didn't she have a bad cold? If they were still in the same place then Peach should be right in front of him since Bowser and Kamek were standing left and right from her bed. He carefully reached forward until he could feel the bed even if he couldn't see anything there but empty space in a street of an unknown kingdom. Soon he found Peach's hand which felt burning hot.
They saw a young knight with blonde hair and blue eyes. The symbol of a mushroom was in his armor. He carried a silver blade in his right hand and his helmet in his left. He put the helmet on and took the shield from his back which also had the symbol of a mushroom. Then he waited for his opponent to show up at the designated place. There would be a battle, that must be why all those people were there forming a large circle to watch. Bowser and Kamek were a little closer than everyone else since it was only an illusion to them. Soon another knight came making his way to the center of the circle. People, mushrooms and koopas alike, stepped away in fear letting him pass. This knight was taller and more muscular than the first but not much could be seen with his dark armor that covered him completely.
The image became blurry and wavy for a second then went back to normal. It happened again a few seconds later. "She's waking up I'll have to speed this up." Kamek said. The image moved faster now. The two knights fought and a long battle appear to last only seconds at the speed they were moving at. Finally the knight with the mushroom symbol won but he was injured. The dark knight fell screaming something hard to understand. He was saying something about revenge. Then the illusion faded away as Bowser and Kamek were once again in the room that thy never truly left.
"Bowser?" Peach whispered as soon as she recognized him. She sat up feeling disoriented and confused. This wasn't a dungeon but it wasn't her room. Maybe she sat up too quickly because the dizziness rushed to her head and made her lay down again. She closed her eyes tightly as her head suddenly started to hurt. She took deep breaths but she somehow couldn't get enough oxygen. She had haling powers but couldn't heal herself this time. She kept that fact hidden pretending the common cold could not be healed so easily. She knew it was more than that but didn't want to worry anyone.
"Kamek heal her!" Bowser demanded. Peach's condition was taking a turn for the worse and he still didn't understand what some vision about a mushroom knight had to do with this.
"I can't" Kamek said. "It won't work, she's cursed and unless it's broken then I can't heal her. That knight was her ancestor from many years ago. If the princess inherited the curse then his dependence was born after that battle. Then it was true, the royal family of the Mushroom Kingdom really is cursed"
Bowser had heard about that before but he didn't believe it, no one did. "How is that possible? If it happened so long ago why wasn't the curse broken by now?"
"Because they might not know about it. I was able to sense it when I looked into her past but her ancestor didn't necessarily know. Her family is to die of an unknown illness, she's showing all the symptoms I should have known it wasn't a coincidence that both the king and queen died like this. The queen must have somehow acquired the curse from her husband, Peach's father. Her grandparents from the side of the royal bloodline must have suffered the same fate. But she's too young the curse must be getting stronger over the years to take her life now." Kamek said.
"It won't take her life. I don't care how you do it but you will heal her Kamek." Bowser said firmly.
To be Continued
Disclaimer, I do not own the Super Mario games or any Nintendo characters.