Chapter Three
"Please fogive me for my much speaking in riddles. This world has become too dangerous to speak freely amongst ourselves."
Mario, who was still weak with fatigue and shocked with awe, sat upright on the bench, frustrated.
"You bring me here to this... place, and drag me all the way to your little cottage dream house, to be attacked by a huge cockroach along your mushroom road, and your first words you say to me in person is an apology? How about you tell me what the heck is going on?"
After venting his anger somewhat, Mario became lightheaded; he was barely able to keep himself conscious to hear the strange being's response.
"I will explain to you after you receive rest. First, your wounds and ailments must be cared for. That beetle you encountered on your journey was very poisonous. It's a wonder you have lasted this long."
"But it didn't bite me." Mario exclaimed.
"Its legs excrete a powerful liquid that can incapacitate any opposition."
"That would explain why I can't feel my shoulder. And, I suppose you have an antidote?" Mario asked, then realized that it knew about his scuffle with the insect. Right before its response, Mario started to speak again. "How did you--"
"As I said, I will explain, but only after your rest. You are not prepared physically at this moment." Interrupted the humanoid fungus. "Let me go get the remedy."
After leaving the room back the way it came, it soon returned with a small heart, the size of a golf ball, that replaced the mushroom that occupied its hands.
"Eat this. It will heal your afflictions and neutralize the venom."
"A heart? Where, or what, did this come from?" Mario asked, taking the dry, rubbery heart into his hands.
"Some things are better left unsaid. Just remember, it is only for your benefit."
Mario, heart in hand, looked up at his apparent caretaker, then back down at the heart. He then took a little nibble. He chewed it for a couple of seconds then swallowed, barely able to keep it down. Reluctantly, he continued to take small bites of it, each bite harder to endure than the last. Finally, it was completely gone, his hand and mouth somewhat numb from contact with the heart. It made him feel sleepy, even moreso than he was at present.
"You didn't tell me that this would put me to sleep."
"Some things are better left unsaid." Repeated the dwarfed thing.
Mario soon lost control of his body and slid down the bench into a laying position; slipping into a world of slumber without dreams.
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