*pitter patter* *pitter patter* *pitter patter* *pitter patter* *pitter patter*
The sound of rain pouring down in the forest was everywhere. Everything was still…almost as if the explosion that had just occurred overhead never happened at all. There was complete silence until something began to stir…
*rustle* *rustle**rustle*…*rumble*…
(B)*groan*
As the rain pours, Bowser comes to. He finds himself on the floor of the forest; the rain pitter pattering against him…he feels pain everywhere….but he manages to find the strength to sit up.
(B)"*groan*...How did I get here?..."
Bowser begins to think, when a few moments later, it struck him. He remembered the explosion that had been caught in.
(B)"*ugh*…Oh yeah….I remember now….the stupid lightning caused my T-Bo-omb to blow and it destroyed the ship…damn….all I remember from there were screams around me…and then-"
*rustle*
(B)"Hmm? Rawr! Who's there?"
Bowser quietly rushes forward to see what it could be. He looks around, but doesn't see anything. He could have sworn he heard something…He begins to walk away when something from the corner of his eye catches his attention. Whatever it is, it looks like it's resting under one of the trees. Bowser slowly goes to see, and is shocked by what he sees.
(B)*gasp*
He turns away.
(B)"Can it be?...no, no, it can't…can it?"
Bowser turns back and goes on over to check but only confirms what he saw. It was a figure that he recognized because he had seen it many times before…it was the last person who his eyes were set on just before the explosion…and now he saw the figure lying there. Even though under a tree, the rain was still pitter pattering all over her. Her dress, all torn and partly burned, and body were covered in mud, grime…and, to Bowser's dismay, even some blood. It was princess Peach…and from what he saw, she was badly injured. She was leaned against the trunk of one of the trees, the rain pitter pattering on her muddy skin, and had many injuries all over…yet looked like she was sleeping. Bowser came and kneeled next to her.
(B)"PEACH! ARE YOU OKAY?"
There was no response. Bowser tries again.
(B)"FOR GOODNESS SAKES, WAKE UP PEACH!"
Once again, she didn't respond. Bowser begins to panic and begins to fear the worst, but decides to check…whether or not she's…
He gets closer to Peach and feels her face.
(B)"Hmmm…..I still feel some warmth….."
Bowser places two of his fingers on her neck to check for a pulse.
(B)"*phew* Thank goodness…"
Peach has a pulse, which means she's still alive…but she's far from fine. Bowser knows that if he doesn't get Peach out of the cold rain, she won't last long. Bowser carefully picks up Peach in his big arms and holds her in such a way so that she isn't getting rained on. As Bowser looks down at the injured Peach in his arms, his thoughts begin to race.
(B)"I better find some place to rest in before…*shudder*…I can't think about that now! I must hurry!"
Bowser hurries away, with Peach safely in his arms, in desperate search of shelter.
…
It's not long until Bowser stumbles upon a cave.
(B)"*pant* *pant* Finally! *pant*"
He immediately rushes inside and carefully places Peach on the ground.
(B)"*pant* *pant* I better hurry and *pant* find something…hopefully some of the supplies from the ship made it…*pant*…"
Bowser makes sure that Peach is safely inside before rushing out of the cave at top speed, into the unknown of the forest. As he runs through the forest, Bowser frantically looks left and right, trying to find something…anything.
(B)"Damn it! Why the hell does it have to be pouring rain now?...There's got to be something out here that I can use..."
At first Bowser doesn't have much luck, just trees everywhere, and considering that the pouring rain makes it hell of a lot more difficult to see…but that doesn't stop him; he continues on with his search. A few minutes later, Bowser happens to comes across a heap of what appears to be many things…yet they have the smell of burning…..
(B)"Hmm….I wonder….could that be stuff from the ship? Damn…might not be since it smells like they were burning…..but I've got to check anyway!"
Bowser investigates and finds that that he was right; these were parts that had fallen from his ship, but were unusable since most of the items he was finding were either destroyed or burned.
(B)"Damn it!...There's nothing here …but I've got to keep looking…."
He looks desperately around the area of the pile, hoping for something useable, when he happens to spot a crater out of the corner of his eye.
(B)"YES! Something useful at last!"
He goes over to the crate, picks it up, and rushes back to the cave.
…
Bowser makes his way back to the cave a few minutes later with the crate. He doesn't know what's in it, but he hopes it could be useful. He easily rips open the crate. He is relieved to find that within the crate there are some needed items: first aid kits, a blanket, pillows, and some food supplies. He dumps everything thing out of crate, rips off a side of it, and sets it on fire with his breath.
(B)"There! This should give us some heat for a while…"
He then carries Peach over and places her near the fire. Bowser stares at Peach's many wounds, and knows that he has to tend to them. He spreads out a blanket and carefully places her on it. He cleans her skin of all mud, grime, and blood, and begins to treat the wounds on her arms and face.
(B)"That should do it for these wounds, so now…*gulp* oh shit…"
Bowser had just realized something…he didn't know if Peach had any other wounds…so in order to check, he would have to remove her clothes! Bowser was very hesitant and turning red since he has never faced such a situation…
(B)"*gulp*…Umm…Uh…I…I…umm….crap…what do I do?"
Bowser looks down at Peach. He looks over her many wounds and glances at her…she looks like she's asleep…but she's hurt… Bowser realizes that he has no choice.
(B)"Damn…I don't want to do this…but I have to! I can't risk having any wounds untreated!"
Bowser carefully reaches down towards Peach, hesitates, but carefully begins undressing her. As he does, he can't help but notice her figure. He places her wet dress close to the fire to dry. As he does so, he can't help but stare at Peach as she lies there, his face turning bright red and becoming hot as he does so…
(B)"Wow…she's so beautiful…. never thought I would lay eyes on such a…delicate creature…of immense beauty…she's simply amazing…"
Bowser's claw begins to reach over to touch her…
(B)"… NO!"
Bowser pulls his claw away…in a way, in shame…
(B)"No! I can't do that...I…I have to treat her wounds…my own…desires…cannot interfere at all right now…I won't let them!"
Bowser sees that Peach has many wounds over her body, and some are pretty bad, so he knows must work fast. As he does, he considers himself lucky to know how to treat wounds: All of his knowledge came from his own experiences of being defeated over and over by the Mario Brothers. Bowser usually ended up with many wounds after their many battles, so he had to learn to cure them, especially since sometimes he was on his own in the wild. It also was good that during his years of growing up, Magikoopa had taught him a few things here and there…thank goodness he actually listened to some of what he was taught…
Bowser goes and gathers rain water to clean Peach's body of more mud and grime, all the while being careful as he did so. He used some of the tools in the first aid kit to clean and treat Peach's wounds. He placed and wrapped bandages wherever he saw needed, and once he was sure that there were no more open wounds, he wrapped Peach's whole body, neck to toes, in bandages but still being able to move and was careful as he went, especially at certain points. He did this so that Peach would be "wearing" something and wasn't completely naked, since Bowser would probably faint after a while if his face got any hotter…
Once he was finished, he wrapped her in the blanket and put a pillow under her head.
(B)"*sigh* I've done all I can….now I must watch over her until she awakens so I know she's okay…"
As Bowser sits there, watching Peach when a jolt of pain strikes his right side and almost causes him to jump in the air…
(B)"RAWR! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?...*pant*…*pant*...oh yeah…he he…I almost forgot…I'm hurt as well…but I feel so tired…"
Bowser is completely fatigued, so he decides to just treat the major wounds he has on himself by placing bandages on them and will worry about the rest tomorrow. As he slowly treats his wounds, he begins munching on some of the food that he had found. Once he was done, Bowser slowly crawled up next to Peach, since he was still in pain, curled up around her, and began taking in the warmth of the fire while maintaining Peach warm as well. As he lay curled up around her, he stroked Peach's hair with his finger, and become engulfed in thought…
(B)"Well Princess…I've tended your wounds to the best of my abilities…I just hope it was enough…and that I wasn't too late…because…*sigh*…well never mind…I'm too tired to even…*Yawn*"
Bowser continued to stroke Peach's hair, becoming engulfed by all the beauty that she appeared to radiate…almost as if there was something else to her, aside from what he already saw in her, that appealed to him…
(B)"*Yawn*...Hmmm…..I wonder what is it that is allowing Peach to give me such a strange feeling inside… and sense of something…but what?...happiness?...*chuckle*…yeah, right…but I do wonder why-*Yawn*"
Bowser can't finish his sentence because his eye lids have begun to feel very heavy from the fatigue that this whole day has caused him.
(B)"*YAWN*…..oh…..I feel so…damn…tired…..*yawn* today's been one…*yawn*…hell of a day *yawn*….I'll just rest my head on the-"
Bowser places his head against one of the pillows, but as soon as his head touched the pillow, he instantly fell asleep.
Something that he appears to have done, whether intentional or not, is to fall asleep with his arm over Peach's body, almost as if showing that he was protecting her from any and all harm…
As Bowser and Peach slept in front of the fire, the storm outside raged on….the wind continued to fiercely blow, the rain kept pouring down, drowning anything in its path and the thunder continued to strike and rage on over the forest on that stormy day…
…
*rustle* *rustle* *rustle* *stomp** stomp** stomp*
In another part of the forest, someone else was running through the rain…searching for something...or someone…
*rustle* *rustle* *rustle* *stomp* *stomp* *stomp*
(M)"PEACH! Can you-a hear me? PEACH! Where-a are you?"
Mario was running through the forest, frantically searching for Peach in the midst of the raging storm. He had been at this for sometime, with no luck whatsoever, most likely because he had no idea where to even look. All he remembers is that when the lightning struck, the ship exploded and he was thrown off in a different direction than everyone else….and he remembers how everyone was screaming as the were falling….but that was about it. Next thing he knew, he was laying on the forest ground. He had injuries here and there, but he was pretty much okay for the moment. However, he didn't know what happened to Peach and Luigi after the explosion and if they were okay or not. He then continued his search as the rain continued to pour down in the forest. It had only been a few minutes of more searching when he heard something.
(?)"…"
(M)"Hello? Who is-a there?"
Mario couldn't really hear too well since the rain was pouring, which made a lot of noise as it hit the ground. Mario decided to keep going, and see if he could find who or what was making that noise. Mario kept running when he heard something again.
(?)"Ma…"
He was getting closer, so he sped up and kept on going.
(?)"Mario.."
He could hear something calling his name…
(?)"Mariooo!"
He definitely could hear something calling his name….and it seemed familiar! He though of who it could be when he heard it again.
(L)"Marioooo Help-a Meeeeee!"
It then struck Mario: It was Luigi's voice! And he needed his help! Mario then called back to try to find where he was.
(M)"LUIGI!"
(L)"Mario?"
(M)"Is that-a you?"
(L)"Yes, it's-a me Mario! Help me Mario! I'm-a stuck!"
Mario continued to follow Luigi's voice until it was very clear where he was very close by. He looked around a bit and then he spotted him. Luigi was buried underneath a pile of rubble and what appears to be debris from the destroyed ship.
(M)"Luigi!"
(L)"Mario!"
(M)"Are y-a okay Luigi?"
(L)"I'm-a alright Mario…but I can't-a get out from-a here!"
(M)"Don't-a worry Luigi, I'll get ya out!
Mario then begins to remove as much of the debris as possible from on top of Luigi. After removing a nice bit, he grabs Luigi's arms and gets ready to pull.
(M)"Are you-a ready Luigi?"
(L)"Ready when-a you are Mario!"
(M)"Okay! Ready…1….2…3!"
On three, Mario pulled, Luigi attempted to push himself out, and then within a second, Luigi came out and landed on Mario! Both stood up and then embraced each other in relief. They were very happy to see that the other was alive and well.
(M)"Luigi, I'm-a so glad that-a you're okay!"
(L)"Me-a too Mario!"
(M)"Luigi, have you-a seen or heard-a Peach anywhere?"
(L)"I'm-a sorry Mario, but I haven't-a seen her since the explosion….augh!"
Luigi suddenly finds himself on the floor.
(M)"Luigi! You-a okay? What's-a da matter?"
(L)"I'm-a okay Mario…it's-a just that my legs hurt…"
Luigi pulls up his pant legs and sees that his legs are injured badly, not life-threatening badly, but still badly.
(L)"Mario, I'm-a not sure if I can-a walk very far…"
(M)"It's-a okay Luigi, I will help-a by carrying ya until we can find somewhere to stay"
As the rain continues to pour, Mario helps Luigi onto his back and begins to walk while searching for somewhere to stay. It's harder for Mario to walk now since the rain and wind are still going strong and considering he has to carry Luigi as well. If Mario had continued thinking about it, he would have completely missed when Luigi spoke to him.
(L)"Mario!"
(M)"Huh?"
(L)"Mario, look-a over there! It's-a cave!"
Mario looked over to where Luigi was pointing, and sure enough there was a cave just a few yards from them.
(M)"Way ta go Luigi! Let's-a go!"
Mario then hurried on over to where the cave was. They stood at the entrance and looked in. It looks like there was nothing or anyone inside…it was a somewhat small cave, but it could fit them both and still have room. Both Mario and Luigi were very relieved to be out of the storm, so they just took a seat inside the cave and rested for a bit.
(L)"Mario? What-a do we do now?"
(M)"I'm-a gonna go off to find Peach!"
Mario gets excited enough that he begins to get up and is just about to leave when he felt a pull. Luigi was holding Mario's arm and wasn't letting go.
(M)"Luigi! Let-a me go! I have ta-"
(L)"Mario!"
(M)"-go find Peach as soon as I-"
(L)"MARIO!"
Luigi's tone of voice caught Mario off guard.
(L)"Mario….I'm-a sorry, but I can't let ya go out there…"
(M)"But Luigi!, I have ta go and-a find Peach! I have ta know if she-"
(L)"Mario! I know that-a we have to find Peach, but if ya try in-a this weather, you will never find her!"
(M)"…I've got to try!"
(L)"Mario…I want-a to go find Peach too…but I can't, and neither can you! This-a weather is-a crazy and at-a this rate, it could-a kill you!"
(M)"…"
(L)"Mario, I-a understand how ya feel….but first we have-ta make some-a sort of a shelter in here because who-a knows how long we could be here….and we-a have ta treat our wounds before they get worse…I'm-a sorry Mario…"
(M)"It's-a okay Luigi…you're-a right…we have to wait for the storm-a to pass…and we have-ta rest up a bit, so we can get better…"
(L)"Don't-a worry Mario…I'm-a sure Peach is safe…in fact I think that she's nice and safe in another cave and all we have-ta do is find her!"
(M)"…Alright Luigi…I guess-a you could be right…Peach has-a been in tougher situations before…"
(L)"That's the spirit Mario!"
(M)"…Thanks Luigi…"
(L)"No problem Bro!"
As the rain poured and the wind blew outside of their cave, Mario and Luigi lay against the back wall of the cave, trying to rest. It wasn't long until the fatigue got to them and fell asleep. As they rested, leaning on one another, the storm continued passing on through the trees of the forest, scattering leaves everywhere and anywhere that the wind blew…
…
Everyone caught in the midst of the explosion has now found shelter from the storm that rages on through out the Mushroom Kingdom: Bowser is watchful over the wounded princess, and Mario and Luigi are resting. Both groups are within the confines of the forest and are so close…yet so, so far…
As the night passes by, everyone is taking much needed rest and wait for the end of this dreadful storm: Mario and Luigi are dreaming of finding Princess Peach safe and sound, Bowser is awaits for the princess to open her eyes once more…and Peach is resting…but her current condition is unknown as is whether or not Bowser's aid had saved her…only time will tell the fate of Princess Peach…
As the storm rages on, Bowser, Mario, Luigi and Peach await for the time in which this lasting nightmare, in which they are now entangled, will end and things revert to the way they once were…
…
End Chapter 2