Author's Note: As many of you may have noticed, this story has a new cover, and I am obsessed with it! It's the work of my sister and IRL best friend, . She offered to design a cover for this story based on the box art of the games in the Mario and Luigi series, and I think she captured the style perfectly.


All of Mariella's life, she had dreamed of flying. However, following the UFO crash and now held in the grasp of a crowber that was *almost* as large as her father, Mariella found flying to be overrated. Especially as the crowber chose to fly very close to the forest's canopy as Mariella's dangling feet barely missed scraping against the bare and scraggily branches. It was surprisingly difficult to hold her legs up as she hung in the crowber's grasp, but she didn't dare squirm out of fear that the crowber would loosen its grip on her shoulders. To fall through the branches before finally striking the ground would certainly hurt.

Soon enough the crowber descended back below the tree line. Mariella gasped and did what she could to put her hands in front of her face to avoid being scratched by the outstretched branches. But, there was no need to. The crowber deftly dodge all oncoming branches for a few moments until they approached a very large tree holding an enormous woven nest on its two largest branches.

The crowber dropped Mariella in its nest before it perched on the edge. Mariella rolled out of her fall. It was better than dropping clumsily like a sack of turnips, and the woven branches making up the nest was surprisingly bouncy. It did not have as much elasticity as a trampoline, but was preferable to landing on a hardwood floor.

She wasted no time scrambling to her feet. She could brush off the small twigs that had broken off from the nest and caught themselves into the weave of her jumper after she was somewhere safer. The crowber instantly noticed its victim sprinting towards the edge of the nest. Well this just wouldn't do, especially after he went through all the trouble of waiting to grab such a pretty thing.

The crowber stretched out its neck and grasped the back of Mariella's jumper.

"Put me down, you, meanie head!" Mariella shouted realizing she did not know very many insults. Her father never used unkind words even when describing creatures that did not have a single nice bone in their body.

The crowber dropped Mariella in a stack of junk on the other end of the nest. She fell into it like a pile of leaves in the fall. After taking a few moments to catch her breath, Mariella wiggled to the top of the pile. She sat on what looked to be an upside-down beach chair. It rocked to the side. Mariella realized it balanced on top of a magenta fridge on its side. A magenta beach chair, balanced on a magenta fridge. As Mariella stared at the junk below, she would have giggled if her heart was not pounding so fast her breath could barely keep up with it.

From the fridge, to the beach chair, to a deflated volleyball, and a rolled up old blanket. Every single item in this crowber's collection was a brilliant shade of magenta. The exact same color as the blouse Mariella wore underneath her jumper. If this crowber kidnapped Mariella just for the color of her outfit, she wondered what it would think of Toadette if she ever wandered into these woods.

Then again, Mariella recalled Toadette and Toad had gone on their own adventure a long time ago where a giant bird did snatch Toadette up while they were hunting for treasure. If the toads told Mariella the bird's name she could not remember. She would have to ask the them once she was home again. Mariella bit down on her quivering lip. If she ever could return home.

Bruised and afraid, Mariella was uncertain if she was enjoying this adventure that much anymore. What was the point of going on one, if she would be lost in the haunted woods and unable to return home and tell her papa everything she had gotten up to?

Mariella shook her head. No. She would not be thinking this way. She would find her way back to Mr. Mario and Mr. Luigi, she would help them rescue their Princess Peach and finally have a chance to hug her mother. Even if she isn't her mother yet, the thought seemed so wonderful. Then she could tell her papa and the toads she did remember her mama, and would not be lying.

Taking a deep breath, Mariella tried to look over her shoulder at the crowber, but in a way that did not look like she was staring. The crowber perched itself at the edge of the nest preening its feathers. He could not stay in the nest forever. If Mariella waited until it flew away, or fell asleep, she could climb down and then try to catch up to Mario and Luigi, who were most certainly on their way to find her.

If Mr. Mario would sneak into a prison to save his brother, he would follow a giant bird for Mariella.

In the meantime, a beach chair precariously balanced on a fridge was not the most comfortable place to sit. Mariella carefully slid down from the chair. It followed her down and crashed onto the rest of the junk below. Mariella froze as the crowber stopped its grooming to stare at her. She did not move again until the crowber determined his newest plunder was not going anywhere and focused back on its preening. Marilla sighed and focused on sliding down the magenta mountain.

She tried to think of it like descending down an oddly shaped pyramid where on step would be a few inches of a pool table and another the edge of an ironing board. Closer to the bottom, Mariella placed her foot on what looked to be the back of a shiny bowling ball deeply embedded in the junk. However once she put all her weight on it, the ball squirmed. "You're squishing me!" a muffled voice whined.

Mariella couldn't help it, she screamed and toppled to the side, landing heavily onto the weave of the nest. As Mariella painfully sat up, unsure if the crackling sounds she heard were her joints or the twigs beneath her, she realized the "bowling ball" she had slipped from was still embedded in the junk, but it was shivering and sobbing.

Mariella got to her feet and slowly climbed back up the hoard until she was sitting next to it. Mariella bit on her lip and lightly laid her hand over the shivering sphere. It twitched under Mariella's touch. Mariella swallowed "Hello?" she said.

The ball did not respond, but continued to cry into the pile. Whatever it was, it was alive and stuck. Mariella lifted her hand away from the surface and rummaged around the ball. Once she thought she had cleared off enough around the edge of the sobbing sphere, Mariella gripped her hands around it and yanked with all her might.

The sphere shrieked as it slipped from Mariella's grasp like a bar of soap. Mariella's stomach dropped as the ball landed on its side uncomfortably close to the end of the nest. Now, freed from the junk pile, it was very clear what Mariella had initial thought was a blowing ball, was a bomb-omb. Mariella sprinted to the bomb-omb and helped her back up onto her little yellow feet.

"Are you okay?" Mariella asked as she pulled her handkerchief from her pockets and dabbed away the tears from her unfortunate companion.

"No!" the bomb-omb said as she whirled around and kicked the shallow wall at the edge of the nest. The bomb-omb's bead like eyes grew incredibly wide as a shadow casted over them and the crowber landed just across them.

The bomb-omb stumbled backwards, righted herself, and scurried to stand behind Mariella who crossed her arms and frowned deeply. "WE just want to go home," Mariella said as sternly as she could. The crowber cawed and stretched out its neck to snatch Mariella up again. She jumped to the side, feeling the wind of its beak snapping at her.

Mariella scooped up the bomb-omb, who was too frightened to protest, under her arm. "I can walk back myself, thank you very much," she said as turned sharply on her heels and marched right back to the junk pile as the crowber continued to stare at the distressed duo.


Mario had to admit it, he and Luigi had zero clue where they were or which way the Crowber had gone with Mariella. A fear wrapped around his chest. It was bad enough to be caught by a wild animal, but did the crowber work for Tatanga? It was difficult to tell, but Mario did not think that he saw any of those tell-tale swirls in the crowber's beady black eyes. Besides, if Tatanga wanted to catch them, they would have all been scooped up by now.

They stepped through the woods pushing branches away from themselves, until the brothers were standing in a clearing that stretched and curved through the trees.

"Well," Luigi said breaking the silence, "At least we found the road."

Mario nodded. If they were to follow it, as long as none of bridges had been torn down or any passages blocked, Mario and Luigi could find their way to Bowser's Castle from there. Except for one tiny problem. They could not go anywhere without Mariella.

So the question was, where would a crowber that size make its nest? This was also assuming that Mariella did not manage to slip free from its grasp while it was flying. For some reason, that thought was more terrifying to Mario than the crowber taking her all the way to its nest.

As Mario thought, he noticed Luigi was whistling. Mario spared a glance at his brother who was shaking like a leaf. "If Starlow were here, what would she tell you to keep repeating to yourself?"

Luigi took in a deep breath, "That I am not scared?"

Mario nodded and smiled tightly still too concerned with Mariella to be completely at ease.

The younger twin crossed his arms, "Well Starlow isn't here so she can't bully me into anything," he said.

Mario could not argue with that. It did make him wonder how Starlow would react to Mariella. Perhaps the little girl was acquainted with the starsprite? Mario filed that question away to ask Mariella when he finally caught up with her again. If he were to follow the road, it would take them away from Boos' Woods. Perhaps it was best to keep moving in, well the direction crows fly, but be smart about it so they would not have to struggle to find the road all over again.

Mario bent down and began to gather many of the gray stones scattered around the dirt road.

"M-mario," Luigi said with a gulp, "What are you doing?" he asked.

Too focused on finding stones that would be easy to see from a distance, Mario did not look up at his brother while answering, "Keeping these to drop as we move in the woods," he explained. "So then we can follow the trail back to the road."

"Okidoke," Luigi said in response as he crouched down to gather stones. They made quick work of filling their pockets, only continuing into the woods when it felt like they might rip from the seams of their overalls.

More slowly than Mario would have liked, they creeped through the woods taking turns to drop a stone every few steps. Every so often, Mario would glance over his shoulder to make sure nothing had disrupted their trail of stones. He felt a place like these woods, it would be very likely for such a thing to happen.

With the sky perpetually downcast, it was difficult to tell how much time had past as the duo stepped over roots and avoided being smacked in the face by branches. Mario had not wanted any harm to come to Mariella since he met her, but ever since he learned she was, or at least, would be his daughter his anxiety for her had gone through the roof. Was this how his and Luigi's own parents felt when they were kidnapped by Kamek?

So focused on their missing companion, Mario did not realize Luigi had not completely cleared a branch Mario held out of the way, when he allowed it to snap back, striking Luigi across the face.

Making a rather comical sounding cry, Luigi fell backwards. Mario wasted no time whirling around and assisting his fallen companion back onto his feet. Already, Luigi had a decent-sized egg growing in between his eyebrows.

A shrill laughed echoed around them. Icy fingers brushed up Mario's spine and neck.

"I don't see why this is funny" Luigi said sounding genuinely hurt.

"I wasn't laughing at you," Mario replied as Luigi's face turned as white as well, a ghost.

He slowly pointed in the direction they had just come from, "M-Mario," Luigi said as Mario followed his brother's shaking hand. Hanging out above the bushes was a boo. Spotted, it covered its face with its fins blushing furiously.

Slight relief Mario relaxed his shoulders, "It's just one boo," Mario said thumping his brother on the back to break him out of his terror-induced trance. "We'll just take turns walking backwards, and,"

A single high-pitch laugh soon turned into a choir as white sphears wove in and out of the trees. Completely surrounding the brothers.

"Mama mia!" Luigi cried.

So much for carefully walking backwards. Not trusting his brother in his fright to flee on his own, Mario grasped Luigi's arm and tore through the woods. All the while the bunch of boos followed after them laughing and hooting as if this was the best entertainment they had in years.

Mario could not run ahead of the boos forever. He needed to find some source of light to stop them. He also regretted filling his pockets full of all those rocks. It weighed him down feeling like he was running through jello instead of air. Mario struggled to toss stones away with his free hand, but it was too much when he was focusing on not tripping or plowing into a tree.

What he really needed was some, light!

Several yards ahead, Mario noticed something yellow softly glowing through the branches. The hope gave the plumber a burst of endurance as he pressed on breaking through the branches and not having the chance to cry out as he fell off a relatively steep bank and onto the packed-down earth below.

The boos chuckling broke Mario from his daze as he jumped up and looked at the source of light. It was a large black lamppost, about three times Mario's height. The top of it emitted a soft, yellow greenish glow. The group of boos following the brothers broke through the clearing like a menacing bunch of albino grapes. The instant they reached the light, they stopped dead, covered their faces and whined as they faded into the air.

Once the last of the mob had disappeared, Mario exhaled and looked to his brother. Crouched down and shivering, Luigi had his hat pulled tightly over his face. Mario carefully placed his hand on his brother's shoulder, "Luigi," he said.

Slowly pulling his hat away from his face, Luigi looked up at his brother, "A-are they gone?" he asked.

Mario nodded as he helped his brother to his feet for the second time within the past half-hour. Trying their best to catch their breaths, the brothers took a chance to get re-orientated to their surroundings. They were in some sort of clearing, filled with houses. However, it was not a ghost town with the structures in shambles or disrepair.

The handful of houses were wood, most likely built from the trees cut down to make the clearing, but were of varying size and most of all personality. Compared the conformity of Toad Town, this was a breath of fresh air. The houses were also small, as Mario slowly stepped forward he realized the roofs of the houses came to just above his head with the size of the doors maybe small enough for a toad to fit through if they ducked slightly.

Whatever lived in this town were not very tall at all. No matter the residents' height, Mario felt they would have noticed a giant crowber carrying off a little girl if they had flown above them. Mario crouched slightly and knocked above the door to the nearest house and, waited.

Just when he was about to give up and continue to try and find Mariella and the crowber on his own, the door flung inward. Before Mario could get a good look at who stood in the doorway, he was met with a flash of light and an ear-splitting bang.


From the nest, Mariella had an uninterrupted view of Bowser's castle. It did not appear to be any larger than a doll's house, but the stone koopa head seemed to be staring at her, mockingly. The sky above her was gray, but the horizon behind the distant castle was blue slipping into orange. Mariella could not imagine how late for dinner she was by this point. What worry she would be putting the toads and her papa through?

"Are you okay?" the bomb-omb asked.

Wrapping her arms around herself, Mariella looked down at her round companion, "I am fine," she said deciding to put on a brave face for her. That stupid crowber was still perched on the edge of its nest preening its feathers. With sunset not far away, Mariella figured the bird was settling in for the night. So she wasn't climbing down until it finally fell asleep.

"No one who says they are fine actually are," the bomb-omb said in response. Mariella noted her voice was high-pitched and youthful sounding.

"I just miss my family," Mariella said.

The bomb-omb paced the area around Mariella, "Me too?" she said. "Pops warned me not to go out into the woods by myself, but I had to make sure my best-friend was okay."

Mariella swallowed, "How long have you been here?" she asked.

The bomb-omb sat down on the nest. "Since lunch time yesterday," she replied. "I think."

Mariella sat crossed legged across the bomb-omb. Might as well try to make good conversation until the crowber dozed off. "I'm Mariella," she said.

"You can call me Dyna," the bomb-omb replied. She stared at Mariella. "You actually look a lot like my best friend."

That was, an odd remark. "I do?" Mariella said.

Dyna's cheeks turned pinker, "I am sorry," she said a mile a minute. "Tom loves to remind that I can't assume all humans look alike, but I have known Lily for years and I think I would know…"

"Your friends name is Lily!" Mariella interrupted.

Dyna bobbed her head in a nod, not at all peeved by Mariella's outburst. "Yes, she lived with professor E. Gadd."

Despite being completely still, Mariella felt dizzy. "She's my cousin."

"Ha!" Dyna shouted. "I was right; you do look alike!"

As quickly as Mariella's excitement came, it faded, "You said you came out here to make sure Lily was okay?" she asked.

Dyna's excitement also quickly dried up. "Yeah," she said. "No one had seen her or the professor in nearly a week."

Mariella did not like the sound of that. Not one bit. Did Tatanga finally reach her cousin too? "Were you able to find out what happened to them before that bird snatched you up?" Mariella asked unsure if she wanted to hear the answer.

"As far as I could tell no lights were on in the house," Dyna replied. "The lab is built against the tree trunk," she added.

"Wouldn't the bird be a problem to them?" Mariella asked.

"Nope," Dyna replied. "That crowber loved Lily, she would leave it gifts all the time and it mostly kept to itself?"

Mariella smiled slightly, "Magenta colored gifts?"

Dyna laughed. It was good to see the bomb-omb smiling for once. "Yep, she was always nice to animals, even mousers."

"That sounds like Lily," Mariella replied as clasped her hands in front of herself. If she could climb down, she could check the lab herself. It had been years since she last saw Lily. In fact it had been more recently since she had seen her Uncle Luigi as he dropped by the house just after her Papa came down with the blorbes. Even with Uncle Luigi missing she had always figured Lily was with her aunt or the professor. Her Papa told her Lily was safe, and from Dyna's story only up until a week ago that had been true.

"Maybe the professor wanted to experiment on something away from home?" she suggested.

"She would have told me if she planned to leave," Dyna answered. "We are the only little girls in the woods and we have got to stick together, you know?"

Mariella nodded as she bit on her lip. She really didn't know. Lily had been the only friend her own age she had ever known. Well perhaps this advernture was all over with, Dyna could be her friend too. They could find Lily themselves and become a terrific trio. Mariella got to her feet deciding she did not want to sit until her legs fell asleep.

She turned around the junk pile and began to rummage around.

"What are you doing?" Dyna asked in an outside voice.

Placing her figure to her lip, Mariella tilted her head in the direction of the crowber still cleaning and preening its feathers.

"Sorry," Dyna said much more quietly. "What are you doing?"

"Seeing if I can find something to make a parachute out of," Mariella answered.

"The crowber will just fly down and get us again."

Mariella looked up at the orange sky, "Not if it's asleep it won't."


The next thing Mario knew, Luigi leaned over him. "Mario?" Luigi said as he twisted his green hat in his hands. "You alright?"

"I think so," Mario replied as he slowly sat up his bones creaking in protest. The back of his head throbbed. Grimacing, Mario gingerly tapped that area with his fingertips. He did not feel any blood, probably just a bad bruise. However, his glove was covered in soot.

He looked up at Luigi who was putting his hat back into place. "What blew up?"

Luigi opened his mouth to reply when a black bomb-omb slowly walked around from his hiding spot behind the green brother. "Sorry," he said. "I thought you were with Tatanga and I panicked."

Mario smiled and patted the bomb-omb on the top of his head. "It's okay," he said. "At least no one got hurt." Except for poor Luigi's nerves, but it in his case it did not take much to throw him off. Mario got to his feet deciding it was not worth it to try and dust the soot from his overalls. As he did so, he noticed a few of the round houses' doors were opening as a handful of black bomb-omb slipped out.

Well so much for the brothers staying under the radar. But, if the bomb-omb who blew up in Mario's face when he knocked on the door did so because he was afraid Mario was with Tatanga, perhaps these guys were not the worst to be around. The enemy of their enemy could maybe be their friend?

An older bomb-omb with a white mustache rivaling both brother's whiskers combined in magnificence managed to get to the brothers first. "Tom," he said stopping about a foot away from the bomb-omb who was a little bit trigger happy. "What is all of this hubaloo about?"

"I am sorry, Pops!" the younger bomb-omb, Tom, said. "Ever since the professor went missing no humans ever come over here so when I didn't recognize these two I panicked."

Pops made as tsk tsk sound as he walked closer to Mario and Luigi. "Thought these chaps were Tatanga's minions, eh?" he looked at the brothers with his twinkle in his eyes. "Well these two don't have hypnotized eyes and certainly aren't dressed in black and purple."

Tom looked down at his yellow feet as Mario and Luigi looked to one another. Mario shrugged as Luigi shook his head in confusion before focusing on the bomb-ombs again. "I'm sorry, pops," he said. "Mayber their with the koopas to collect what we owe..."

"Don't apologize to me," Pops said interupting the younger bomb-omb, "Apologize to, Mr…" he looked to Mario as if expecting the plumber to supply him with his name, but his eyes winded with surprise. "Aye carumba!" he said. "It's the Mario brothers!" All the other gathering bomb-ombs cheered as Mario and Luigi flushed.

"The Mario who?" Tom asked.

"Have I failed you as a grand-father?" Pops asked. "The Mario brothers, the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom."

"Well they don't seem like they did a very good job at being heroes," Tom replied.

Pops huffed and puffed even more. "How could you say that?" The other bomb-ombs began to mumble among themselves. From what Mario could catch from the conversation they were agreeing with Pops.

Mario and Luigi looked to one another and shrugged. Truth be told, Mario could not blame the younger bomb-omb for being bitter. He had seen Toad Town and could not imagine the rest of the mushroom kingdom being much better. However, it still stung knowing the world ended up the way it did because of something he would eventually fail to do.

However, saving the world needed to take a back seat to save Mariella. "I am so sorry," Mario said although he really wasn't that sorry to interrupt the two-squabbling bomb-ombs. "But, we are in the middle of an adventure and we could use your help."

Both grandfather and grandson quieted down, before Pops perked right up as quickly as he deflated, "An adventure to save the princess?"

It took a great deal of self-control to not burst out "yes" in response to this question. He and Luigi were on their way to save a princess, but not their Princess Peach. "A little girl we know…" Mario began.

"The one always hanging out with that ghost professor?"

"Well she doesn't know any, wait," Mario said. "Do you mean a professor who is a ghost or just studies ghost?"

"You mean to tell me you two haven't been speaking with Professor Elvin Gadd all these years?"

This far into the future E. Gadd was still around studying ghost in Boos Woods? Mario shrugged. "I haven't seen in him a while."

Pops voice softened, "Well that doesn't surprise me, no one has seen him for years, such a shame too." Pops tilted his body towards the lamppost that had saved the brothers earlier. "Built that for us when we first arrived here. Let me tell you. I don't know what we would have done without that man. He supplied all of us with his ghost repelling flashlights too."

Tom rolled his eyes, "It has bare been a week since we saw him or Lily last."

Pops turned his attention away from the brothers to focus on his grandson, "Well it feels like years with that blasted bird wreaking havoc around ever since the professor left!"

Some questions answered themselves. "Is this bird a giant crowber?" Mario asked.

"What else would it be?" Pops asked.

"I only ask because our friend who was taken was scooped up by a giant crowber?" Mario replied.

"So was Dyna!" Tom burst out.

Mario's attention was on the younger bomb-omb, "How long ago was that?"

"Before Pops tells you it was last summer, she went missing yesterday," Tom explained. "Every time I try to go over there with a ladder, that stupid bird picks me up and drops me off back here," he looked down at his yellow feet.

"That's why I told the two of you not to go walking in the woods alone," Pops said.

Tom groaned and looked back at his grandfather. "Well maybe if we never left bomb-omb battlefield none of this would have happened."

"And stay where taxes and prices rose faster than the sun?" Pops asked. "Rubbish."

Tom turned away from Pops and focused on the brothers. "We left home because Toms kept complaining about inflation and taxes," Tom explained.

"Tatanga taxes?" Mario asked.

"Nope," Tom answered, "Bowser II. As I was saying to combat that, Pops moved us out here where money is meaningless and the only non-living neighbors is a crazy professor who is going to be one of the ghost he studies soon."

Pops swatted Tom across his back with his foot. "Be more respectful of your elders."

"Since when is being honest the same as being disrespectful?" Tom asked.

Realizing he could not stand this intergenerational conflict another minute, Mario cleared his throat, "If you know the way to this crowber's nest, I think Luigi and I could be of assistance."

The bomb-omb's shut up and turned back to the brothers.

"Why?" Pops said. "That would be wonderful."

Tom stepped away from his grandfather, "Well," he said. "I guess if you guys are the heroes of the mushroom kingdom then you can handle one bird, but I will believe it when I see it."

"Tom!" Pops roared, "Enough."

Mario put up his hands. "Don't worry," he said. "He'll be taking all of those back in a bit."

Tom sniffed, "Alright you two this way," he began to walk in the opposite direction of the lamp-post as the group of bomb-ombs parted to let him through.

"Wait!" Pops said as he scurried to his house and slipped through the blown opened door. Mario noted a patch of black soot against the doorframe. "Don't leave without a gadd-light!" he shouted from inside.

"Pops!" Tom groaned.

Mario shook his head. "We were chased by boos on the way here," he said. "This time I think you should listen to your grandfather."

Tom looked over to the Mario brothers, back to his grandfather who was now leaving the house carry a large green flashlight, and rolled his eyes again as if all of this was the most inconvenient thing that could have happened to him.


Authors Notes 2: I do apologize for such a long time between updates. Real life hit me like a bus this summer, but the fall is looking to be much, much better. And, I have the next three chapters mostly written so (as long as I am not tempting fait by saying this) there should not be a three month gap inbetween updates moving forward. Thanks to all of you who stuck around in the meantime. You are the best! :)