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).
Balancing isn't easy.
As an adult, I couldn't remember being an infant, or those first moments when I had hoisted myself up onto two feet, using the edge of some piece of furniture or other. The memory of trying to walk without support escaped me. Standing on the orange sphere was probably comparable, though.
The rails had helped. At least in that respect, there was a guide to the insane idea of standing on a ball in order to collect coins.
"You'll need that for speed," they had said. I'd have preferred a cape. Or a fast flower if the issue was simply getting to the end quickly. It was clear to me that the problem was really that they wanted to see the ball roll over my head when I fell off of it.
I fooled them though – managed to stay on with no difficulty. Staying on the ball, though, that wasn't the problem.
It wasn't difficult enough to their thinking, forcing me to balance on a ball on a track with no guardrails that I was sure had a huge jump somewhere in it. They could have at least told me about the Bob-ombs.
No, I had to come upon those by chance. I managed to avoid the first two. Sweat dripped down from my face, landing on the ball's surface when I leaned over to see if there were any more hiding in front of me. Of course, that made my already precarious balance falter when my shoe slipped in it.
The ball rolled forward just enough, touching that sensitive little fuse.
I tried to slide off the ball. Since I'd already lost my balance, I was laying on the curved surface on my stomach. Unfortunately, my hands couldn't get enough traction to allow me to push against it, and the surface wasn't slick enough for my belly to simply slide down. Bad enough to do a belly-flop, but not being able to get back up – or even simply change positions was embarrassing.
Fortunately, I didn't have to worry about anyone seeing my terrible predicament. The Bob-omb exploded, sending the ball flying up into the air with me along for the ride. As it came back down, it tilted just enough to keep me from being able to reach the platform if I had managed to jump.
As I watched the track get further away, my last thought was how much I wished I had done what I always wanted to when that Toad decided to deliver that horrible pun and wrung his scrawny little neck.