Chapter 21 All Sorts of Problems

It was maddening. It was terrifying. Running through the haunted woods made Aria feel both lightheaded and scared. The question of whether or not it was possible to escape from these boos stayed front and center in her mind, thus causing every part of her to buckle under the weight of her fear. This horrible state of being was only accentuated due to one very horrible fact: there were more boos within these woods. Some of these devilish creatures noticed her, and they joined in the chase. Their laughter carried throughout the forest, creating a chase unlike any other. Stress-induced sweat covered Aria's body, and tears containing the same emotion fell out of her eyes and exploded on the ground. Her fear and adrenaline were probably the only things keeping her alive at this point.

"Come back, little girl!" one of the boos yelled. Aria's fear spiked up, as she remembered how the Shadow Seeker called her the exact same thing. She prayed to Grambi multiple times. Her sweat and tears were now unmanageable, unstoppable. She had to keep running. She didn't care what rested in her way.

To her shock and horror, another boo phased through one of the trees, sticking out its tongue as it floated in front of Aria. Aria screamed in a way she never had before. The tears flowed at a much faster rate.

"A mortal!" the boo said. It chuckled. "You look good enough to possess!"

It charged at Aria, who only barely got out of the way in time, The boo did a double take, and Aria took advantage of its confusion by bolting in a completely different direction. The boos yells of disdain echoed in her ears, making her heart race. She resumed with her prayers to the all-powerful Grambi.

Please please please! She screamed in her head. Please let me get out of this alive! Please let me…

Her foot caught onto a root, and she tripped. She fell face first in the dirt, and any sliver of confidence she had in getting out of this alive vanished. She hastily pulled herself to her feet, even though she knew there was no point. She was a goner, she was toast. Her entire body shook, and she cried like a newborn. She only wished she had a chance to tell Ludwig goodbye. She shed one last tear, now feeling saddened that she wouldn't be able to turn things back to normal…

When she noticed something. She had to double-take when she saw it, for there was no way it was real. This was a boo-infested forest, so this had to be some sort of illusion, right? Well, when she stepped toward it and touched it, to her delight, she found that it was real.

It was a beanstalk, reaching up into the air. No doubt it stretched up above the trees. No doubt that it was Aria's way out.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" the boos said in a haunting example of speaking in unison.

Deciding she didn't want to waste a single second, Aria clutched the beanstalk in her hands and began to climb. She climbed like a monkey, not missing a single beat. She was worried that she would miss a crucial step in her fear, but miraculously, she managed to ascend without any sort of problem. And the higher she rose, the more thankful and excited she got.

Soon enough, she had climbed over the purple fog covering the forest. If the boos were saying anything, she couldn't hear them anymore. Aria laughed in relief, and her fear melted away like snow in the sun. Her excitement rose as she did, and it only got stronger when she saw a fluffy white cloud resting at the top of the beanstalk. When she got to the top, she placed her feet down on the cloud. It was a little bouncy, but it was solid. A great sign if Aria had ever seen one.

But there were more great signs to be found than just this cloud. By looking forward, Aria saw a path of rainbow blocks stretching through this cloudy land. This told Aria that she was in Meringue Clouds. There was no doubt about it; the appearance of the place matched the descriptions she had heard perfectly. And if she was in Meringue Clouds, that meant one thing. One amazing, relieving thing.

She didn't have long until she reached Peach's Castle.

Aria laughed, putting her hands in her hair and smoothing it back. This was great! Incredible, even! It was almost too good to be true! She thanked Grambi at least twenty times over a single minute. Seriously, that beanstalk had been an absolute godsend!

So, not wasting any more time, she continued on her journey toward Peach's Castle.

…

This day had been an interesting one for Celia. She mostly spent it focusing on her job as a waitress (she had managed to get another one after finishing school, despite what a disaster her last job had ended up being). She figured that serving different people would be a good way to distract herself from everything. And, for the most part, she had been right. Heck, she had been more than right, as the people to whom she brought food had all been absolutely delightful. They gave her what were probably the most generous tips she had ever received in her life. Sure, she also encountered some very prejudiced people, but thankfully, they were few and far between. For the most part, this day of work proved to be one of the better ones, which she was more than a little thankful for. Seriously, not having people scorn her every few minutes was a definite treat.

Maybe this was an omen for what would happen if she…

Celia shook her head, banishing those thoughts. No, no, no! She was not thinking about that! She was working right now, she wasn't going to worry about her problem. She already spent an ungodly amount of time thinking about it at home, so she needed a break. She needed to focus on something else, if for no other reason than to keep her sanity in check.

So, she focused entirely on work. She served the people, not even caring about those assholes who appeared throughout the day. She treated them with respect and dignity, putting her absolute best foot forward. She smiled like she had no worries at all, which thankfully, seemed to rub off on some of her customers.

"Thank you!" said a Toad as she brought them their chicken marsala, smiling so brightly as they did.

"Of course," Celia said after setting the dish down on the table. "Can I get you anything else?"

"Umm… no, I think I'm good." Celia nodded and was just about to leave when the Toad said something to her that made her pause. "But can I just say, you look absolutely gorgeous?"

Celia's face grew warm. "You think so?" When the Toad nodded, her face grew warmer, and she curled a strand of her hair over her ear. "Th…thank you. That's really nice to say."

The Toad nodded and delved right into eating. As she walked away, Celia thought about this. A Toad… a flipping Toad called her beautiful. No, not just beautiful; they called her gorgeous! Wow. Wow wow wow; she couldn't even believe it. It made her feel good. It made her feel amazing, it made her feel like she was miles high. The only ever time that she had felt this good was when she was with Roy.

Unfortunately, this good feeling came with a caveat. It was another factor that made her think about her problem. She tried not to; she did her absolute best not to. But adding a kindle to a fire makes it burn brighter, not fizzle out. So, Celia couldn't really walk away from her problem at this point.

Someone thought she was beautiful. Oh, that was such a great source of validation, one that she never thought would come from a source like a Toad. And… wait Roy had told her she was beautiful too. He often called her stunning and pretty, and did so with the happiest voice in the world. She never really thought too much about it, but it was really nice that he took time out of his day to do that. And he often sighted her koopa traits as a reason why. Like her fiery hair and her golden skin… he often said that those traits made her unique in the best ways possible.

Remembering that made Celia seize up. Oh, what would it be like if she gave those up? Would she still be beautiful? Well, on some level, it shouldn't matter, should it? If she had to choose between a comfortable life and her appearance, then she should choose a comfortable life. That made the most sense, after all. And really, it would probably be what Celia would choose under normal circumstances. After all, she never really cared about her appearance before.

But if she had some sort of natural beauty because of her koopa half…

Celia sighed, the sound long and drawn out. She shouldn't think about this now. She really shouldn't. Thinking about it when she was at home was hard enough, but now she was at work. She was doing a job that she desperately wanted to keep, especially seeing how her previous job had ended with the restaurant owner kicking her out of the building. If she spent too much time thinking about her dilemma, then she wouldn't be at the top of her game.

So, she shook her head, gave herself a little slap on the cheek, and resumed with work. This was all going to work out fine in the end, anyway. Sure, the problem stressed her out to no end right now, but it wasn't going to do that forever.

Right?

…

Wendy and Toadette laughed as they walked through Toad Town again. They had finished sorting the archives about an hour earlier, which turned out to be a fun job. Yes, sorting through tons of ancient, decaying papers had turned out to be enjoyable; Wendy couldn't believe it either. She probably never would've elected to do that when she was at home. But having done it with Toadette by her side, it felt less like a chore and more like a game. It was a unique game that had some simple yet enticing rules.

And now that it was over, and now that they had wished the Toad Brigade goodbye for now, the two girls had resumed the tour. Toadette told stories about the various locations, speaking with an uninventable passion. This made the tour so much livelier and made it feel like the simple and quaint Toad Town was the stuff of legends.

"And finally," Toadette said, "we have Mario and Luigi's house!" She gestured towards the simple building. Yes, simple; much more simple than Wendy would've expected from those house of two heroes. "Most people in Toad Town had taken the time to build this for the brothers." Toadette giggled. "Mario was able to help with both the plumbing and the construction a little bit." Wendy raised an eyebrow. "Before he was a plumber, he had tried to be a carpenter."

"Ah," Wendy said. She looked back at the tiny little abode. "Well… I've gotta say, it looks cozy."

"From what Mario and Luigi had told me, it is." Toadette looked at the house herself, letting out a sigh. "And I would be lying my butt off if I said I wasn't jealous. Every time I look at this house, I always wonder if I could find a place that has even half of the appeal." She looked back at Wendy. "I mean, my Toad house is pretty nice, but there's something about this one. It… I don't even know how to describe it."

Wendy laughed. "Makes sense." She looked back at the hose, with the wooden walls and the tiled roof. "But I think I get what you mean. I would want to live here too." She chuckled. "It's humble but authentic."

"Yes. Exactly." Toadette sent another wistful look toward the house before turning back around. "Well, we should probably take the warp pipe back to Toad Town."

Wendy nodded. The two girls got to the warp pipe within record time, sliding down it without any fuss or any trouble. When they got back to Toad Town, Wendy took in a deep breath. She smoothed out her dress, all while thinking about the various locations she had seen.

"Well, that was the tour of Toad Town," Toadette said with a twinkle in her eye. "What did you think?"

"I loved it," Wendy said without a moment's hesitation. "It's very different than what I'm used to, but… I love it." She curled her hair back. "I can't really describe why though."

Toadette laughed. "Yeah, Toad Town is like that. It draws you in in a way that you never would've expected going in. It's pretty special, in that way."

Wendy nodded. Together, the two girls began walking through the town again. They didn't say anything for a little bit, but that was okay. Wendy didn't mind a little friendly silence. If anything, it was probably the most welcome type of quietness she could have selected. Even Toadette didn't seem to mind it, as she smiled to herself as they went on with their walk.

"You know," Toadette said after a while. "What you said to me in the Toad Brigade Headquarters was really nice." Her face turned as pink as her cap. "It's probably the nicest thing anybody has ever said to me."

"Really?" When Toadette nodded, Wendy didn't know how she was supposed to feel about this revelation. "Well… I meant every word."

Toadette chuckled. "Thanks." She looked at Wendy. "You're really nice, Anna. You have this sort of friendliness to you, and for that, I'm really glad that I met you."

Wendy paused. "Uh…" she thought about this whole thing, about the details she liked… and the details she wished from the bottom of her heart she could overlook. Looking at the pink-capped Mushroom girl who stood in front of her, speaking to her with such praise-filled admiration and words, Wendy didn't know how to feel. She didn't know what she wanted to do.

Well, that wasn't one hundred percent true. She wanted to continue being Toadette's friend. The fact that she had run across her by chance, in a place and position she never would've expected, made this meeting all the more special. So what if the circumstances weren't ideal? Toadette liked her. She liked her because of her personality, which is one thing Wendy hadn't kept secret or lied about in this whole endeavor.

So, she smiled at Toadette. "I'm glad I met…"

"Wendy!"

Wendy seized up, her eyes grew wide. Her blood feeling frozen in place, she turned to see Mario running up to the two of them. His expression was soaked in worry.

"Wendy, what are you doing here?"