Chapter 24 A Storm is Coming

As the sun set over World 3, Junior kept his eyes focused outside the window. The second day spent in Kamella's cabin was winding to a close in the most beautiful way possible. Seriously! Looking outside at the snow, reflected pink and purple thanks to the light of the setting sun, Junior wondered where this beauty had been all his life. Looking at it, appreciating it… it was awe-inspiring. He wouldn't say it made him feel "nostalgic," but it did something to his heart. It made him feel things that probably would've been foreign to him otherwise.

"How you feeling, Baby?"

Junior smiled as Kamella came up and rubbed his shoulder. Looking up into her face was like seeing your one true love for the first time in years. He felt happy, he felt calm, and he felt peaceful. Somehow, the expression she gave him made him feel like all the problems he's been experiencing over the past week have been minor. So what if his family didn't love him? Kamella did, and she was going out of her way to show that she did.

"I'm doing good."

"Good." Kamella directed her attention out the window. The two of them stared at the beautiful, sparkly, cold expanse for a few minutes before Kamella sighed. "World 3 really is magical, isn't it?"

"Yep," Junior said with a nod. He got one more view of the outdoors, hoping to engrain this gorgeous sight in his mind so that he could recreate it. Kamella had revealed to him that she had some paper and a box filled with one hundred forty different crayons in the cabin, and by golly was he going to take advantage of that!

So, he moved away from the window. He used incredible speed when it came to getting his art supplies. In fact, he moved so fast that one could easily assume he had been put under a spell. He smoothed out his paper on the cabin's floor and got one of the crayons out.

"You want to draw the sunset?"

"Oh yeah!" Junior jumped right into coloring, using the pink crayon. After a few minutes, he heard Kamella giggling, which threw him for a loop. "What's so funny?"

Kamella chuckled some more. "You stick your tongue out when you color."

"I do?" Junior considered this before his face grew warm. "Man, now you probably think I'm some kind of baby…"

"Well, yes, but in a completely different way." Kamella chuckled some more before walking up to him. "You're my special baby."

Junior's face grew even warmer before he started giggling. "Thanks." He jumped right back into coloring, this time trying his best to not let his tongue hang out. It was much easier said than done.

"Okay," Kamella exhaled. "You have fun doing that, Junior." She started walking toward the door, much to Junior's confusion.

"Wait." He sat up. "Where are you going?"

Kamella bit her lip. "There's a storm coming."

"There is?"

"Yes. It might appear clear now, but I checked in on the weather. There's an eighty percent chance of snow this evening."

"Oof." Junior looked away from her for a minute. "How much snow? Is it, like, blizzard levels?"

"No, but it will be enough to trap us in the cabin if we aren't prepared." Kamella grabbed a broom that was sitting right next to the door. "I need to go to the nearest town to get supplies."

"Uh… okay." Junior thought about this before something occurred to him. "Wait. So, with you gone… I'll be home alone?" Kamella nodded, causing a spike in Junior's excitement levels. "Oh, awesome!" He jumped to his feet. "I've never been home alone before!"

Kamella nodded, her brow furrowing. "I figured." She paused. "I… I have to be honest, I am a little hesitant about leaving you here…"

"Don't be!" Junior grinned from ear to ear. "I'm a good boy! I'm responsible, I'm mature, I'm smart… I know how to take care of myself!"

"Oh, do you now?" Kamella asked with a playful twinkle in her eye.

"You bet!" Junior walked over to her. "You don't have to worry about me, Mom. Even if I wasn't the most responsible boy on the planet, we're in the middle of nowhere! No one is gonna come up to the cabin and try to take me away!"

Kamella chuckled. "That is true…" she paused before looking Junior in the eye. "You sure you'll be okay?"

"Positive!" Junior wrapped her in a hug. "I promise I'll be on my best behavior."

Kamella let out a little breath and hugged him back. "What did I do to deserve you, Junior?" She held him in her arms for a good long while. As a result, this moment had a special quality to Junior. Sure, most of his stay with his brand-new mom had already been plenty special, but this… this made him feel like everything was right with the world. The problems he had with his old family were getting smaller and smaller with each passing minute.

Unfortunately, the moment eventually had to come to an end. Kamella pulled herself out of Junior's hug. They smiled at each other before Kamella adjusted her hat and held her broom by her side. "Well… I'll be back in about three hours. Be safe for me, okay Buddy?"

"You got it, Mom."

So, with one last nod from Kamella and one more word of encouragement from the former prince, Kamella left. Junior was now entirely alone, and he felt… he felt good. Seriously, he had never gotten the opportunity to be home alone at Bowser's Castle. There was always someone there, whether it be a sibling or a servant. He supposed he should enjoy this moment while he had the opportunity.

With this thought in mind, he jumped right back into drawing.

…

"*Achoo!*" Ludwig shivered, rubbing his arms in order to keep warm. "I swear, it feels like the temp's dropping by at least ten degrees a minute."

"Well… that does make sense." Lemmy looked up into the sky. The sun had set about half an hour ago, which meant the snowy land was experiencing dusk. "The temperature usually drops at night in this world." He paused before chuckling. "It drops at night in most worlds, really."

Ludwig sneezed again. "Well… I don't like it." He channeled his emotions and allowed his pyrokinesis to activate around his hand. This was both bad and good; good because it would provide them with a decent light source after dark, but bad because Ludwig didn't feel any extra warmth from it. That was the thing about his fire powers; they didn't provide him any warmth when they were just on his skin. They could if they were used to light an external heat source, but otherwise, nada. And yes, Ludwig did realize this was for the best most of the time, but right now… oh, how he wished he could feel at least somewhat warmer. Even a little bit of heat would be nice.

Oh well, at least this fire could keep Lemmy warm.

The two Koopalings continued walking through World 3. Ludwig considered flying, as that would make things go faster, but he ultimately decided against it for two reasons. One, rising too high into the air would mean he would experience even more coldness than he was currently. And two… well, he had a feeling he and Lemmy would miss something if they flew too high. Especially so because it was after sunset. No, if they wanted to find Junior, they had to stay as close to the ground as possible. It might suck, but right now, it was their best option.

Speaking of things that might suck, Ludwig noticed something that made him worry: snowflakes. They floated down to the ground with the grace of a feather, but Ludwig knew that there was nothing gracious about them. In his head, he prayed to Grambi that these snowflakes were just a light flurry. If they developed into something greater, like a storm or even a blizzard… yeah, no. There was nothing good that could come out of a scenario like that.

"Lemmy, stay close to me," Ludwig said as he gestured to his flaming hand. "If this storm picks up, we're gonna need to stay close so we don't get lost."

"You got it."

And so, the two continued searching. Ludwig kept his eyes peeled in the blue firelight, praying for multiple things to come to pass. One of those things was his own anxiety to go down. He wasn't having a full-blown panic attack now, but every time he looked up in the sky to see the snow coming down harder, his ability to stay calm and level-headed decreased. SUBSTANTIALLY decreased.

"Oh, this is not good…"

"No. No, it is not." Lemmy looked up at the snowflakes, which were not only fast but also big and fluffy. "I know a storm when I see one, and this is definitely it." He shivered, which was an action that Ludwig wished he hadn't noticed. "I think…" his shivering got even worse, making Ludwig's anxieties shoot through the stratosphere. "I think we need to take shelter."

"Yeah, I think you're right, but…" Ludwig's heart pounded. "I don't know how close we are to any towns."

Lemmy sighed and his shoulders slumped. "Neither do I."

Ludwig took deep breaths. His heart was like a kettle drum in his ears; ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump. Everything about this mission was just… well, all he could really say was that he was glad Lemmy was with him. If he was by himself right now, this would be going VERY differently. He would be a crying baby, worrying about every single last thing and cowering in a feeble position.

"Well…" Ludwig used every last bit of self-control he had to sound strong, sound sure of himself. "If we get flying, maybe we'll reach a town quickly." He deactivated his flame and took hold of Lemmy's hand. "Come on, Lems."

They rose into the air. They didn't go too high, of course; they were just a few feet off the ground. But even still, the fact that they were in the air worked WONDERS when it came to their speed. They breezed through the freezing atmosphere. Sure, the temperature continued dropping, which didn't help with anything. But even still, Ludwig knew that they would find shelter eventually.

At least, he knew that at first. After about half an hour of flying through a dark, chilly storm, his optimism started to tank. It didn't help that the snow was coming down HARD. Like, hard enough that Ludwig had trouble seeing through it. He couldn't make out the outlines of buildings, he couldn't make out the outlines of trees. He tried activating his pyrokinesis on the hand that wasn't holding Lemmy, but that did very little. They might as well not even be in the air; they might as well be buried in the snow on the ground. The visibility of everything and especially on the temperature of their surroundings would be exactly the same.

As a result, Ludwig's developing panic-attack continued getting worse. His breathing transitioned into hyperventilation. This was why he hated World 3. Even when he wasn't thinking about what he had experienced in this world so long ago, his worries and fears were still cranked up to twelve here. He seriously felt like just falling out of the sky and giving up. He was right on the cusp of doing it when…

"Ludwig, look!"

Ludwig looked where Lemmy pointed. It was hard to see, but if he squinted his eyes, he could make out…

"Light!" Surprise and a teensy morsel of hope struck him. "There's… there's light!"

Realizing that light was the best sign that he had seen through this storm, Ludwig sped up. As he got closer to the light, he was delighted to see that said light was connected to a cabin. Thank! GOD! A cabin was a great sign, an EXCELLENT sign! Even though it didn't do anything to change how cold Ludwig felt, it made his anxiety disappear extremely quickly. After a few minutes, Ludwig even started to wonder what he was worried about in the first place.

Eventually, Ludwig and Lemmy landed on the front stoop of the cabin. Not wasting any time, Ludwig knocked on the cabin's door. Hopefully whoever lived here would be kind enough to offer two freezing dragon koopas a place of refuge.

"Just a minute!"

Ludwig blinked. That… that voice. Was that… no, no, it couldn't be! There was no way!

At least, that's what he thought until the door was opened. "Wow, Mom, you certainly came back… fast."

Ludwig gawked. It really was. This was actually happening.

"Junior?"