Sorry it took so long. I really should have posted this sooner. Again, thanks so much for my followers and reviewers. It really does help.
Disclaimer: Mario, Peach, Luigi and Daisy belong to Nintendo
Mario felt great. It had been surprisingly easy to tell Peach he was a werewolf. It had a long time ago when he and Luigi had gotten lost in the forest. They had been lucky a pack of werewolves had found them first, though it seemed dumb luck at the time. Mario remembered as if it was yesterday how they had exploded from the bushes. He remembered sacrificing himself to let Luigi get away and into the castle. Mario remembered clear as day getting bit, the terror that had shot through him, the power that had flowed, the temporary insanity. The need to kill had pulsed through his mind. There was too much power, and he had too little strength to control it. Mario remembered how he had focused on Luigi. The need to see his twin brother once more drove him on. Mario remembered waking up just fine on the couch with a worried Luigi standing over him.
Mario and his brother had only been four at the time. Both of them had been surprised to return to normal as soon as they set foot outside the forest, even at night. That had made it easy to keep the secret, until now. Now Peach knew, and she liked Mario just the same. Why wouldn't she? He thought. Nothing was different.
Mario's mood plummeted when he saw the lady.
He first noticed her wandering around. She looked lost, so naturally, he moved closer. When he realized she was human, he was shocked. Humans where a rare sight in the Mushroom Kingdom. An event years ago had resulted in a mass extinction, but there were humans elsewhere in the world. The kingdom of Hyrule was an excellent example. Mario was pretty sure this lady was not from Hyrule. She was old, little more than a withered husk. As soon as she caught sight of Mario, her eyes gleamed in recognition. She started toward him.
Mario ran.
It may have been cowardly, but Mario wanted a second opinion on this. He needed to ask Peach, or Luigi. She may have been friendly, but when the people were unfamiliar, it was usually safer to run. The other factor to weigh in was he recognized her too, vaguely, but he still recognized her. The most creepy part about it was he recognised her back, but it felt like it was a different version of her. It was the way he felt about Mr. L when he first met that nutso. He recognised him, but he recognised a different version of him: Luigi. But at the time, Mario just couldn't put his finger on the name.
It was lunch time, and Mario was enjoying his meal to the fullest. All memory of the strange encounter was forgotten in the embrace of the elegant flavors of lunch time. When Mario was done, he went to the balcony to get some fresh air. He was enjoying the beautiful sunset when Peach came up behind him.
"It's a beautiful sunset isn't it?" Mario asked.
Peach frowned. "Sunset?" She asked. She came out onto the balcony and gazed at the sun. "Something's wrong," Peach said. "It's 2:00 PM, the sun shouldn't be setting."
A familiar feeling welled up inside of Mario. Suddenly he felt himself growing fur, claws, and fuzzy ears. The drive for blood surfaced inside him.
Peach stumbled backwards, stunned.
"Something is definitely not right," Mario growled, dropping onto all fours. He could stand upright, but in this form, all fours felt much more comfortable. "I'm not a werewolf outside the forest, even at night." There was one more thing that was really bothering Mario, something that definitely wasn't right. He wanted to kill Peach. He wanted it very badly. It was surprisingly hard to keep himself from sinking his fangs into her leg and dragging her to the ground. He wanted to make her beg for mercy and then kill her anyway. He wanted to make Daisy watch. He wanted to kill Daisy too. A small voice in the back of Mario's head kept insisting kill the escapees! Redeem the forest of monsters!
He decided not to tell Peach. How exactly do you tell your girlfriend that you want to kill her, yet, don't want to kill her?
"What's that?" Peach's question snapped Mario out of his thoughts. A winged shape had risen from the streets and was flying toward the castle. As it got closer Mario could see more detail: snake hair, batwings, and her face…
"Don't look at her!" He told Peach urgently.
"I don't get how you can even see it's a her from this far," Peach said, squinting.
"Go inside, Peach. Get Luigi and Daisy in the library with you. Something is very, very wrong, and I think it's our fault," Mario growled, keeping his ears open and his nose pointed to the winged shape, but he did not dare open his eyes.
The sound of wind buffeting the balcony alerted Mario to the creature's arrival. Her scent stank up the balcony. Then the scent changed. Mario knew that meant she was going dormant, but he still sank into an attack stance. Tentatively, Mario opened his eyes.
She looked young, about eighteen, but you never knew with monsters. She had delicate fingers, long legs and copper-colored hair with a black band about a finger length from the end of each strand. She looked nothing like the lady that Mario saw earlier, but he knew it was her.
"Why are you here?" Mario growled. He flicked his tail toward the setting sun."and what do you know about this?"
"I came to warn your friends inside," she said. "The whole forest is after them,"
Mario growled threateningly. "Why do you care?"
"Because here we are all humans who care about each other," she replied. "My name is Düzenbaz."
Mario was surprised. One did not offer one's name in the Forest of Monsters to strangers, ever. Names hold power, and even though what's-her-name had taken a big leap of faith, Mario was not about to reveal his name.
"Come inside," he growled. "Tell us what you know."
Mario lead Düzenbaz to the library, where Luigi and Peach were arguing. Despite the tense air in the room, Daisy was mocking each of them, probably out of boredom.
"So, it is these two the forest is out to kill," Düzenbaz remarked, almost hungrily.
Instantly the noise in the room went out like a candle in the wind.
"What do you mean, the forest is out to kill us?" Peach asked nervously. "A forest can't think, can it?"
"You don't read enough fiction," Daisy sighed.
"That's because it's only fiction," Peach retorted.
"Some legends must be minded," Düzenbaz insisted, "and the forest is too alive. It also feels it has a reputation to keep."
"How does a forest have a reputation?" Daisy asked.
"Remember that teacher's-pet-do-anything-to-get-straight-As kid from school?" Düzenbaz asked.
"Of course!" Daisy exclaimed. "Wait a seco-"
"Well the forest is like that. It will do anything to keep its reputation," Düzenbaz continued. "Except its reputation isn't straight As. The Forest of Monsters's reputation is nothing leaves there alive."
"Well we did, so hah!" Daisy sneered.
"See," Peach remarked, "fiction."
"Not quite," Düzenbaz warned. "If any humans escape, the forest expands its parameters to encompass the whole world, and sends its monsters to kill the escapees. Wherever they are struck down becomes the center of the new forest. Only alloyed monsters have a chance at resisting the forest's will, and even most of them see the event as more like a race of who can kill you two first,¨ she said, pointing to Peach and Daisy.
What makes you different from most alloyed monsters?" Luigi questioned.
¨Nothing.¨ Düzenbaz's hair melded together into flexible tubes, each with the same pattern on it: mostly copper-colored with one black stripe near the end. Each tube formed two eyes, a mouth, and a forked tongue. Düzenbaz's fingernails lengthened into claws, and the gorgon lunged for Peach and Daisy.
But Luigi was faster. The venomous viper-fangs on the top of his mouth snapped into spitting position, and a stream of acidic venom shot out into Düzenbaz's face. She hissed in pain as the front of her face melted.
Mario sighed in relief. With her face melted, Düzenbaz couldn't turn any of them to stone. That name was so fishy! I bet it was fake! The gorgon had been smart to use a fake name. If her plan failed, they still had no power over her.
Luigi cannoned into Düzenbaz, throwing her out of the library while she was still confused. Mario backed him up. Together they drove her all the way out to the balcony before she even knew what was happening. With a final heave, Mario sent her plummeting over the edge.
As she fell, her wings opened. The snakes that were her hair let out a collective hiss. A mist of venom shot from their mouths. Mario and Luigi just had time to turn away before it hit them. Luckily, it only felt like a mist. Luigi opened his wings and took flight to renew the fight.
"Luigi, wait!" Daisy called. "Come back inside, we'll close the doors we'll be safe!"
"She tried to kill you," Mario reminded Daisy.
"Yes, but those snakes in her hair are spitting cobras; they can blind you," Daisy said.
In the air, Luigi heard Daisy's words. His eyes snapped shut.
"I meant come back down! Not fly blind!" Daisy called. "Did you not hear that part about the blindness?"
"He heard every part," Mario assured her. "Luigi, in this form, has some of the best hearing in the whole forest, and that's saying something. Also, I don't know if you noticed, but Luigi is part bat. He can use echolocation, duh." Mario sniffed the air warily. "We need to get out of here, now. I smell them, they're not far. Once they are on our trail, they will not be fooled off of it."
"Who are 'they'?" Peach asked.
Then they heard the howls.