Chapter Fourteen

Within three hours, Peach had made it halfway to Sarasaland. "Turtle" was running well enough, but it took a lot longer to travel when the Mini Koopa Kart had to be flown ten feet above the ground. She could have tried to fly it over the forests, but she felt it was too much of a risk in the jittery little Clown Kart.

*Bzzzz….bzzzz...Bzzzz….bzzzz….*

Peach took her phone out of her pocket. Bowser was calling.

"It's only just past midnight! Why is he calling?" she said to herself as she ignored the call.

*Bzzzz….bzzzz...Bzzzz….bzzzz….*

"For stars' sake…" Peach muttered, ignoring the call again.

*Vppp*

This time Bowser had texted her and the screen of her phone read, "I know you have your phone."

*Vppp*

"Did you really think you could steal my midnight snack without me noticing?"

Peach glanced behind her seat. The big bag of food she had taken from the fridge was sitting proudly on top of her suitcase. "Oops…"

*Vppp*

"Thanks for the letter and all. It was very thoughtful of you."

She clutched the steering wheel harder, feeling guilt grip her stomach as she read his text.

Bowser didn't call or text again, but he didn't need to. Peach already knew what she had done. Tucking the phone away, she loosened her grip on the steering wheel and took a deep breath. She didn't need to feel sorry.

"I'll make it up to him later. Right now, my friends need me."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A few hours into her journey, Peach heard an unusual rasping noise coming from the engine. She checked everything but it wasn't running low on power and there were no warning lights flashing. Just in case, she stopped on the side of the road and let the motor cool off for a good fifteen minutes before getting back in and starting Turtle up again. The sound went away, but another fifteen minutes later the little Clown Kart started rasping again. This time it was much louder. Peach began to fly a few feet lower as the sputtering sound continued to grow until it finally gave a loud huff and dropped to the ground.

Peach was a little shaken but uninjured. "No! Turtle…" she moaned. "Please don't give up now. At least get me out of the woods first," she pleaded with the Clown Kart as she stuck the key into the ignition. Turtle wheezed a very discouraging puff of gas and went silent.

"This is no good. It is only an hour past midnight and we aren't even on a paved road," Peach groaned. "But I am sure, with a little bit of elbow grease, I can fix her up in no time," Peach stated with her stubborn optimism. Once the princess got out of the Clown Kart, she quickly pulled out her cell phone and turned on the light.

An hour later, Peach was covered in oil but the Mini Koopa Kart showed no signs of improvement. "Well... I am sure there will be people using this road within the next few hours! It is rather gravelly and unkempt, but it is good enough to be driven on," Peach reasoned with herself as she took in her surroundings. The gravel road she now found herself stranded on was littered with potholes and wound through a thick forest of large trees.

Hearing water in the distance, Peach decided to take a look around and loosen up her muscles. Luckily, the moon was so bright that she didn't need to use the light of her phone unless the trees were thick enough to block the light of the moon. A short distance away, she found a beautiful rocky stream bubbling happily through the forest. A little farther up the stream was a small waterfall with naturally formed pool beneath it. The water was crystal clear. The light of the moon could be seen gently resting on the bottom, where a couple of fish were swimming at their own leisure.

"I guess I should clean myself up before resting," Peach smiled. Walking all the way back to the Clown Kart, she grabbed her suitcase and took it back to the side of the pool she had found. Stripping her self of her dress, she wiped a majority of the oil from her arms onto the fabric and entered the pool in only her bra and panties.

The water was just high enough to reach the middle of her thigh. The princess shivered as she stood in the water, which was just warm enough to be pleasant but just cool enough to give her goosebumps. After wading for a few minutes, she put her head under the water and quickly flipped her head back out, flinging a perfect arch of the crystal water with her long blonde hair, just as Daisy had taught her when they were kids.

"What. The. Hell."

Peach yelped and wrapped her arms around herself as she turned around to see the Koopa King himself standing at the edge of the pool. He was absolutely stunned.

Peach quickly sat down in the water and turned away from him, covering her scarlet red face with her hands. She yelled over her shoulder, "What in high hell are you doing here, Bowser?!"

"C-coming to… f-find you…" Bowser stuttered stupidly.

Peach looked back at him. He was standing with his mouth wide open and his red face almost glowed. With a sigh, she said, "W-well… stop your gawking and hand me my towel!"

"Yeah… M-makes sense," Bowser said, slowly pulling his eyes from the skinny dipper and moved towards the towel she had set on top of her suitcase.

Peach stayed where she was, but a click caught her ears and to her horror, her bra unsnapped itself. With a mortified squeak she took a hold of the front of her bra to keep it in place but soon realized her Contract mark was now wide open for Bowser to see. If he saw the signature, it would risk him finding out about the Contract.

"Once signed, this Magical Contract cannot be made known to any person other than the original signers."

"Shit," Peach whispered. She looked back and saw Bowser stretch his arm out to grab her towel from the ground.

Just as he was about to look up, the princess jumped out of the water, grabbed the towel from his claws, and quickly hid behind a tree.

If their faces here red before, they were a much deeper red now.

Bowser stood completely frozen in place. The claw the towel was taken from remained extended. "Did you just…?"

"Shut up, Bowser," she mumbled from behind the tree, not daring to come out from behind it.

"You really did just…" Bowser started again.

"Bowser! Shut up, damn you!" she yelled in dismay.

They both remained quiet until she heard rustling come from the other side of the tree. "Bowser, stay out of my stuff. You can't just rummage through my…"

A pink dress popped up beside her. "Here," Bowser grunted, keeping his face on the other side of the tree as he held the dress out to her with his claw.

Peach took the dress out of his hand and peeked out to watch Bowser take a few paces in the opposite direction, sit with his back to the tree, and cover his eyes with his claws.

"Thanks," she said quietly.

"Yep," he answered.

After drying herself off with the towel, she put her dress on and situated herself until she was comfortable. Taking a deep breath, she walked out from behind the tree to see Bowser in the same position she had left him in. Hearing her walk closer, he took his hands off his eyes, stood up, and faced her with a look of uncertainty on his face.

"Sorry," Peach apologized, keeping her eyes away from his face.

Bowser shook his head, "No… it was my bad for walking in like that. I was just so set on finding you that I didn't even think about what you might be doing."

They stood silently looking anywhere but at each other. A few very awkward minutes passed by until Bowser plucked up the courage to open his mouth to speak.

"Why?" Bowser asked softly.

Peach held her breath and continued to look away from him, guilt filling her body again. She thought she would have more time to think about how to explain herself. This isn't how she had planned things to go.

"Peach?"

"I… I had to get to Sarasaland. Something has come up and…" but Bowser shook his head.

"I know you have urgent business. But why the letter?" Bowser asked. "Why not just knock on my door and ask me to take you? You could have been there much quicker." Taking a breath, he pulled his eyes from the ground and looked at her face. Peach guiltily stared at the ground as she tried to choose the right words to answer.

"You thought I wasn't going to let you leave, didn't you?"

Peach folded her arms and stubbornly huffed, still keeping her eyes away from his face. "There was a chance you wouldn't, but I mostly didn't feel like I needed to explain myself. I already told you more than what I should have," she said, picking up her stuff and packing it back up in her suitcase.

Bowser shook his head in frustration but took a deep breath. "So what is your plan now? It doesn't look like your girly little Clown Kart is up to the task."

"Her name is Turtle!" Peach corrected him. "And I am going to sleep for the rest of the night until morning. I am sure she will be running better once her motor cools off. "

"Or you could go back to the castle with me and we can get you on one of my official transportation ships," Bowser suggested.

"No," Peach stated.

"And why not?" he groaned.

"Because I already made up my mind to drive myself," she answered firmly.

"Peach, you are a strong, independent woman… but you are also the thickest, most stubborn person I know," Bowser growled. Peach watched him warily as he walked up to her and stretched out his claw. She closed her eyes and cringed, waiting for him to grab her, throw her over his shoulder, and take her against her will. Instead, she felt him tug the suitcase out of her hand begrudgingly. Opening her eyes, she watched him with a look of surprise as he searched for a good place to set up camp.

"He's not going to take me back to the castle? It's not like I could stop him," Peach wondered.

Once he had found softer ground, Bowser set Peach's suitcase down and began searching for dry wood while Peach changed into her pajamas. A few minutes later, Bowser set down a pile of dry tree branches and, with a small puff, lit the branches, creating a rather charming fire.

"See that?" Bowser exclaimed proudly. "No one makes a fire bigger or quicker than me." He grinned and looked at Peach, but was quickly silenced when he saw that she had already curled up on the grass in her pajamas. After rummaging through her bag again, he found the pink blankets that he had kidnapped her in on Sunday morning and gently laid them over her. She shifted a little but her eyes stayed closed.

Bowser smiled at her quietly for a few minutes. After checking the fire one last time, he laid down on his stomach with his head resting on his arms. Peach opened her eyes when she heard him begin to lightly snore. She was tired, but her mind was having trouble slowing down. Quietly, she counted to one hundred and focused on her breathing. She repeated this process and, in about 30 minutes, her muddled thoughts transferred themselves to her subconscious.

Peach would not have restful dreams.