Sorry if some parts of this chapter are confusing ^^;

Later that evening, as I laid on my bed I couldn't fall asleep my thoughts kept flowing inside my head. I stared at the sky, at the stars, which were visible through the ceiling window that was over my bed. Despite my frustration I couldn't help but smile. Every time I stared at those stars, I don't know why but the stars always seemed to have a strange importance to me, as if drawing me towards them….YEAH strange I know…..anyways those Stars Always cheered me up, whenever I was feeling down on myself.

"You need to love yourself for who you are…..
And NOT for what you Want for feel you NEED to be"

I blinked at Father's comment to me played through my head, I need to love myself for who I am…..For a second it felt as if someone else had said that to me. I felt a strange sense of power flow through me. I smiled at the stars one last time, as I suddenly dozed off.

"Don't fret Young Yoshi your time will soon come"

Shelly tossed and turned in her sleep as if distressed.

"Urgm…." she whimpered, as she slumped onto her side.

"Where am I?"

I was walking along a path of Stars all of different colors, was this normal? Nothing was ahead of me but more of the Star path, I fallowed it. Suddenly I saw something shining ahead. I felt my heart race, as if what was ahead had extreme importance to me, I ran to get to the glow. Finally I made it, the glow grew brighter and brighter as I climbed up a few gold plated stairs. I was astonished to see that the glow was coming from an unusually large Golden Star. This was the Star that had the greatest importance to me. Just as I reached out for the Star everything suddenly went black and with it I felt excruciating pain. Suddenly I fell from the Stars into the Darkness that surrounded the Star path. I suddenly heard a dreadful laugh, it sent chills down my spine…..I felt incredibly scared.

"BWA HA HA HA!"

GASP!

I suddenly sprang awake, my entire body was soaked in sweat. I breathed with relief, grateful that it had only been a Nightmare, a terrible one, but ONLY a Nightmare. *Whew* I looked up at the sky, the Stars were no longer out, signifying that it was morning. I felt a strong sense of alone-ness and fear, but relieved that I didn't have to go back to sleep, to possibly relive that Nightmare. I got up and left my room rather quickly. As usual both my Parents were already awake.

"You're up early Shelly" Mother replied upon seeing me come into the kitchen area. Father smiled as I entered. I simply nodded at them, I wasn't in the mood quite yet for talking…I was still recovering from that nightmare. I sat down at the table. What was up with that nightmare anyway? Despite my numerous misadventures, I had NEVER had a nightmare before, EVER! (Well Not to this extent anyway.) I couldn't get that Star outta my mind. Why did it have such an importance to me? My mind suddenly drew towards the part I dreaded about my nightmare…That laugh…I've never heard a laugh like that, but despite that for some reason it brought extreme fear to me and I couldn't understand why.

"Shelly, Your Father is speaking to you"

I suddenly jumped back into reality, both my Parents were staring at me, Father looked worried.

"Um…..yeah?" I mumbled feeling extremely stupid right now. Father didn't say anything for a minute.

"Are you feeling well today Shelly? You've been pretty distracted this morning" Father finally asked.

"Yeah" I responded rather quickly, before realizing that I should have responded in a little less hastily. "I'm still half asleep" I laughed feeling stupider by the second. Mother laughed as well however Father didn't seem as convinced. Panicking I decided to change the subject a bit. "I was thinking about that time, when Dash, Parry, Koop, Angela, Azalea, Ilario and I were watching the Star cup last month, Dash brought up how he spilled his juice into Koop's shell" I snickered. "Azalea thought he had wet himself" Mother laughed again at my story.

"You've told us about that already Shelly….." Father responded, still not looking convinced. I stopped laughing, feeling nervous now. I hadn't mentioned my nightmare to them, I was afraid they'd overreact to it.

"I'm just tired Dad….." I mumbled faking a yawn. "Give me a few *yawn* minutes and I'll be more alert" I finished yawning again. Father suddenly smiled.

"Well maybe you should go to bed earlier tonight" he replied, I laughed.

"Or maybe I shouldn't wake up earlier than usual again" Father smiled and turned to help my Mother get breakfast ready. I breathed a sigh.

After lunch later that day I decided that I wanted to go for a leisure walk. As I was walking out the door Mother stopped me.

"Be careful Shelly" she told me, I smiled at her and nodded.

"Yep" I walked out the door.

"Be back before sunset Shelly" Father called after me.

"No worries Dad!" I called back breaking into a run. Yoshi and Birdo smiled at each other and went back into the house.

As it turned out my leisure walk had turned more into a leisure jog, but after about an hour I slowed down to walk. As I walked I couldn't help but notice that something wasn't right about the landscape. Spending more than half my life here, I had become pretty familiar with everything and something didn't seem familiar. I slowed my pace as I suddenly felt a cold sensation flow through my body. I gulped, I didn't understand why I felt so uneasy. I slowly turned to my right and caught sight of some withering flowers. Strange, flowers on our Island never withered until winter was on it's way and it was BARELY summer. For some reason I wanted to look at the flowers a little more closely. I knelt over and picked up one of the withering plants in my hands. I frowned at them, this wasn't a natural occurrence. Something or someone had caused these flowers to die. I felt a sudden pain as something grabbed my arms and then tied something over my mouth, muting my cry of pain. I struggled when suddenly whatever had me lifted me off the ground. I struggled and attempted to fight back but I couldn't break free. Suddenly I felt a familiar twinge of pain and with it everything went dark…

FINALLY some action hmm? LOL Again I apologize if the text got confusing at some points, mainly the dream scene...yeah sorry if it was a bit odd LOL and also sorry for that random story made by Shelly... :p I just wanted to add a little humor to the not-so-cheery situation.

Again THANK YOU ALL for reading and if possible I'd like to see who everyone's favorite Characters are and Why :) Feedback is ALWAYS great ^.^

Mario related Material Property of Nintendo

Story and O.C Characters (meaning Shelly, Dash, Ilario, Angela, Azalea, Koop, Parry, Surge, Lilli, Karrie and Phoenix) Property of MCGoldYoshi (aka ME! ^.^ )