2
Mario took one of the fire flowers from Luigi's hand and examined it.
"Hmm…" he said. "I wonder what the professor meant when he said that these would grant us special abilities."
"The only way we'll find out is if we rub one of these in the palm of our hand." Luigi said. "Should we try it?"
"I think we should wait for a later time." Mario said. "We might need these later."
"But, Mario," Luigi said, "There's a lot more fire flowers next to that tree trunk!"
"Luigi, let's not be wasteful." said Mario.
Luigi looked at him with a disintegrating glance.
"Alright, fine." Mario said. "At least we'll know exactly how to use these things!"
"Why else do you think I insisted that you try it out first?" Luigi asked.
Mario, with the flower in hand, examined one last time. Then, he reluctantly started to rub the flower in his hand. He waited a moment, waiting to find out what its special properties were, but nothing seemed to happen. He became impatient with his brother.
"Nothing's happening, Luigi!" Mario said. "I think you made me waste a flower."
"How am I supposed to know when it will go into effect?" Luigi protested.
"I don't kn…"
Suddenly, something weird began to happen. Out of nowhere, something nearby broke the intense darkness of the night. Luigi looked at his brother and shrieked.
"Mario! Your hand! Your hand is on fire!"
Mario looked down and saw that his hand had been enveloped in a ball of red flames. He screamed, but then realized that his hand was not in any danger. In fact, he didn't feel the slightest amount of pain!
"Luigi! There's no pain in my hand!" Mario said.
"Really?" Luigi asked in a stupefied tone. "How is that possible?"
"I have no idea!" Mario shouted. "This is so weird!" Then he noticed something else starting to change.
"My clothes!" Mario said. "They're changing colors!"
Luigi watched as Mario's coveralls started to change from light blue to bright red like his shirt. Then, he saw that his shirt was starting to turn white; his other hand was now enveloped in fire as well. Mario was speechless.
"What just happened?" he questioned.
"I don't know…" Luigi said.
"I want a really good explanation of this!" Mario said, as he started to grow impatient.
"I honestly don't know!" Luigi said.
"Here! Tell me if my hands burn your hands!" Mario said. He held out his right hand and turned it over, as if he were expecting something to be given to him. Luigi touched it and burned his finger.
"OWWW!" Luigi said. "That hurts!"
"It doesn't hurt me!" Mario said. He started to laugh at his younger brother. Luigi took his fire flower and rubbed it in his hand.
"Oh yeah!" Luigi said. "Watch this!"
A moment passed when Luigi's hand started to glow. His hand was then surrounded with an orb of greenish fire, which shone brightly against Mario's red flames.
"What are you doing?" Mario asked.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Luigi asked. "I'm using the other fire flower!" Mario watched as his brother's clothing changed colors; his dark blue coveralls were now green and his shirt also turned white as he gained his own fire power. Luigi touched Mario's ankle and made him jump in pain. Luigi laughed back.
"OWWWW! Son of a bitch!"
"I can feel the energy flowing through my body!" said Luigi. "I almost feel like a supernatural being!"
"Tell me about it." Mario said, rubbing his new wound. "We're even now."
"We can see where we're going now, too." said Luigi. "I feel safer."
"What other purpose do these flowers serve?" Mario asked. "And why do we have different colored flames?"
"I guess they reflect our personality?" Luigi guessed. "I don't know. The only reason I say that is because you're rather hot-headed, and hot-headedness is represented by the color red."
"And I guess green represents envy?" Mario asked sarcastically.
"Hey, that's not funny!" Luigi said.
"I was just joking!" Mario replied. "And you say I'm hot-headed…"
Luigi formed his hands into fists and was surprised to see the flames in his hands grow larger and more spherical.
"What's happening?" Mario asked.
"I don't know," Luigi replied, "the flames got larger for some reason. I think it happened when I became angry from that comment."
"Hmm…" Mario said. "Now that you mention it, I think I know how this fire can be used."
"How?" Luigi asked.
"Combat."
Luigi pondered the thought for a moment.
"Combat?"
"Yes, Luigi." Mario said. "I think that if we can stock up on these, we may have greater advantage of taking back the Mushroom Kingdom and saving the princesses!"
"Ah, I see!" Luigi said. "But how is that going to work? You can't just throw the fire at someone! Or can you?"
"Nothing's impossible until proven otherwise." Mario said. "Why don't you try it out?"
"I think I'll let you try it." Luigi said.
"Fine!"
Mario's frustration made his hands grow brighter and the red flames grew and formed spheres.
"Ready for this?" he asked.
"Go for it." Luigi replied.
Feeling as though he were throwing an invisible ball, Mario turned his body and swung his arm forward and watched as a ball of red fire shot across the dark forest and struck a small scattering of twigs. The brothers watched as the twigs exploded in a ball of fire and disintegrated into glowing embers on the wet dirt.
"Whoa!" Mario said. "That was wicked!"
"I want to try!" said Luigi.
"Wait, hold on!" Mario said, as he ran over towards a tree and picked up many twigs and branches.
"What are you doing?" Luigi asked.
"I'm gathering wood for a small fire!" Mario said. "We'll sleep here tonight."
"Okay." Luigi replied. "I just wish we had blankets and stuff like that."
"I think we'll survive." Mario said. "It's not like we're camping or anything like that, although I wish we were a little…"
Mario laid the twigs out into a big pile in an open area filled with dirt, pebbles and larger rocks. He then took the larger rocks and made a circle around the twigs. He looked up at his younger brother.
"Well, care to light it?" Mario said with anticipation.
"Do I!" said Luigi.
Luigi nervously stood back and raised his left arm to get the proper aim. Then, with his right arm, he turned around and threw the fire ball with all of his strength and set the twig pile ablaze in a green fiery explosion. Luigi smiled.
"This is so awesome!" he shouted.
"I know!" Mario replied. He looked at his hands and realized that they were getting dimmer.
"Umm… Luigi." he said. "I think the power is wearing off…"
Sure enough, Mario's hands stopped glowing and his clothing changed back to their normal colors. Soon after, Luigi started to see similar results as his power started to dwindle as well. After his clothing changed back to normal, the only light left was the light of the campfire.
"Well, that didn't last long!" Luigi said, obviously still mesmerized at what they had just discovered.
"That sucks." Mario said, looking over towards the tree trunk where Luigi had originally found the first two fire flowers.
"I think I'll go grab some more…" he said.