Mario tapped Olly's arm, then had him lean forwards. He poked Olly's back and Olly inhaled sharply in an attempt to diminish the pain.
"Oww..."
"He has bones?" He asked peach, who nodded and shrugged.
Olly sat back up and placed his hands onto his lap. "This isn't good..."
"What were you-a doing?"
"I was trying to teach him to drive a kart, but he took off way too fast and crashed!"
"Ah. I've-a been there. Your legs are probably broken then."
"That's not very reassuring..." Olly said. "And I can't fly with all this pain. Can you make it go away? Please?"
Mario waved his hand side to side. "Kind of. It'll take a lot of-a patience for it to-a heal properly."
Olly whined. "But I...I don't want to be in pain...It hurts..."
"Don't give me that-a face! You'll be fine when it gets better!"
Olly sighed. Luigi entered with Olivia.
"Oh, Mario! And Olly? Wasn't expecting to see you here!"
Olivia went over to her brother. "Olly? What are you doing here? Did you miss me?"
Olly sniffed. "Owie..."
"Are you okay?"
"He broke his legs," Peach told her. "I didn't get to warn him about how fast the karts could get fast enough." She laughed nervously. "I have a bad reputation with Origami Kingdom now, I bet. Sorry."
"Aww, poor you! It probably doesn't hurt as much as getting crumpled though! I give you that!"
"Would you forget about that already?"
"No, you almost killed me! Jerk!"
Olly sniffed again. "Don't call me that please...I already feel bad about that."
Mario pat Olly's head. "Don't-a worry! You're in our care now!"
"Thank you so much," Peach said to the Mario Brothers, bowing. "I'm certain Olly will be better soon." She mouthed 'sorry' to Olly once more before leaving.
"Yay! Two pairs of twins in the same house! You'll be better soon, right? I don't like seeing you hurt, brother."
Olly covered his face. "Look where recklessness took me...Now I'm trapped in Mario's house with broken legs and unable to fly..."
"Your bones must-a be origami too," Luigi said.
"Why wouldn't they be? That'd either be weird or creepy."
"Mario broke his leg once doing the exact same thing." Luigi snickered. "His was surprisingly a lot-a worse than yours is. And it was just one-a leg!"
"But, thanks to that," Mario inserted, "I can-a jump a lot-a better now!"
"I still-a jump better than you," Luigi challenged.
"This still isn't helping me feel better..."
"How bad is it?" Olivia asked.
"I can't fly, Livi! How bad do you THINK it is?!" Olly ran his hand through his bangs. "It hurts too much, I can't fly without being in pain..."
"Oh, that is pretty bad." She smiled. "But we'll make sure you get better!"
Olly fought back a smile. Her optimism was adorable, but Olly felt it was terrible timing to be happy about his sister being herself. After all, he was in immense pain. He looked away from her instead, his gaze moving to the bookshelf within the room.
"Oh? You read, Mario?"
Mario followed Olly's gaze. "Oh, sometimes? Not-a very often. You want-a one?"
Olly placed his hands onto his lap, responding with a simple nod. Mario went over to the bookshelf and examined it over.
"What haven't you-a read yet?"
"Well, it depends on what you have."
Mario read the titles of the books, Olly stopping him once he got to "The Tale of the Queen."
"That one sounds familiar." Olly held out his hands. "May I see it?"
Mario placed the book into his hands. It was thick and heavy, taking Olly with the weight. Mario helped Olly back up and placed it in front of the king instead.
"It's a fairytale. No pictures-a though, if that's what you like. Olivia read all the picture books in the-a house!"
"Sounds about right," Olly agreed. "Let's see here. Ahem." He flipped open the book to the first page. "Well, this is written in the ancient text! No wonder it was gathering dust!"
"Woah," Luigi gasped. "You can-a read that?!"
Olly nodded. He flipped a few pages. "Where does it begin? It's all just rubbish..."
He flipped more pages, increasing his speed before coming to a stop roughly ten pages past the first quarter. The pages fell open and Olly leaned in closer to read. He sat back up, confused.
"Mani...Why does that sound familiar?"
"Wait!" Olivia inserted. "Mani's an Ancient One!"
Olly tilted his head. "Huh? You know that name too? Ancient One as in those odd Toads in the clouds? What was up with those guys anyways...?"
"Her name...Everyone who was around in Ancient times said I looked just like her. The White Toads, Kaaptan Teeowed, Kori, even Ol' Grandsappy! And this ancient book mentioned her, AND Stephen's book he found from that corpse! Well, it mentioned Origami Magic, but close enough."
"She's-a right," Mario said. "That was a problem we were-a dealing with all day. Who is this Mani, then?"
Olly examined the book further. "Sandi? That name's new."
"Aww, it's a cute name! Wait!"
"This again?" Olly sighed.
"Kori mentioned a Sandi! She's a girl, and he thought you were her!"
"I don't look like a girl!"
"There seems to be a pattern here...If only we could figure it out..."
"Wait a minute, that Professor Toad..." Olly muttered. "He can help us!"
"But Olly, your legs!"
"It'll heal. This is high priority at the moment! I want to figure this out, and if Mani and Sandi are the reason why..." He stopped, realizing he had lifted from the bed. He screamed. "Okay, okay! Legs first. Oh gosh, why?!" Olly fell back onto the bed, tears welling up in his eyes. "Legs first...mystery later..."
Mario laughed. "You should have expected that! Don't worry, they'll heal fast with our-a technique!"
