Disclaimer: I do not own any of the numerous Mario enterprises. I make no profit from this work of fiction.
Reviews are welcome. I'd love to hear from you! Review responses will be posted on my Facebook page:
FB URL /pages/RogueMudblood/684906514892205/
Author's note: These chapters will be flashfics – meaning they're intended to be short (under 1000 words).
Judging distances is very important.
The tiny talking tree didn't mention the part where I'd have to retrace every single one of my previous journeys just to find those medallions. Why those little wooden menaces didn't see fit to tell me that part of their "we need a comet!" speech I can well guess. If they had, I certainly wouldn't have been willing to re-enter the menace of stone rapidly rotating around the swirling streams of certain death.
Needless to say, I was standing on that horrible carnation granite – who in their right mind makes pink stones? – waiting for that perfect moment to jump, and cursing the single leaf sprouting from that wooden curmudgeon's skull. If I had thought about it at the time, I might have realized that a single leaf probably meant he only had a single brain cell. Sadly, I had erroneously assumed that helping these critters would mean I'd be helping myself get one step closer to finding the princess so I could go home. I didn't even want any cake. I just wanted a hot shower and a soft bed.
When I finally managed to get my feet solidly on the speeding slate grey slabs, I groaned when I realized the spinning medal was hanging just beyond the reach of the stone. It lurched to a stop, almost sending me over the edge and into the waiting rapids below. I was grateful for all the practice I've had in balancing. And for the fact that my hat didn't fall off my head. Heaven knows explaining that balding spot the first time I went out without the thing was awkward enough.
I braced my feet a little better as it moved on its track, faster than a typewriter carriage. Waiting for that medallion to line up exactly was a vain exercise, and one I frankly didn't want to spend the time on. I kept my knees bent, waiting for the moment just before it stopped.
It wasn't missing the medallion that bothered me as much as landing in the water when I fell.
From above, the swirling streams had seemed to be moving pretty swiftly. Perhaps it was the "life flashing before my eyes" phenomenon that made it seem otherwise. But once I was just underneath that slate grey bar, I tried to move in that river as though it were made of nothing more than air.
Unfortunately it wasn't. And suddenly that spinning medallion seemed to be snickering as it waved at me with each turn. When the rushing current finally pushed me beyond any possibility of reaching the circling stones again, I grimaced at the thought of being swallowed up by the black abyss I was rushing toward.
My last conscious thought was that I pretty much deserved that fate for listening to a tree to begin with.