Chapter 34 Frosty Bones
The dry bones wreaked havoc all over this poor little town. Some of them chased random civilians, who screamed as they tried to evade the zombie koopas. The dry bones smashed things, broke things, messed everything up like they were entitled toward doing so… everything they did, they did while cackling. It made chills run up and down Peach's spine.
"What do we do?" she asked, turning to Mario.
Mario put his hand to his chin. "Well… we can't just jump on them like regular koopas. They'll regenerate; it's the dry bone's worst feature." He sighed. "The only way to fight against dry bones is if you have an ice flower, but… I don't think I packed any."
"Me neither." Luigi shook. "But… we can't just leave this town to suffer!"
"We might not have much of a choice, unfortunately," Mario said, his shoulders slumping.
Peach frowned. She looked upon the town, which by this point was overrun by the skeletal pests. She felt a pang; she had already experienced the destruction of her own kingdom, so the fact that she was helpless to prevent the destruction of another important location didn't sit right with her. She wanted to cry, she wanted to sob. She severely wished that they had some ice flowers…
Wait. Didn't she get an ice flower from Tolstar earlier?
"Wait a minute guys; I think I might have an ice flower." She took her backpack off and rummaged through it, sweating as she did. "I think… YES!" She pulled the icy blue flower out. "Oh, this is perfect!" She gobbled the flower, and her dress turned the same shade of blue as the ice flower's petals. "Now we can fight against the dry bones!"
"Yeah!" Mario said, smiling as he did. "Do you have any more?"
Peach seized up. "Uh… oh shoot." Her shoulders slumped. "I don't think we do…"
"Huh. Well, that's still okay!" Mario patted her on the shoulder. "I can teach you how to use the ice flower, and you can fight off against the dry bones!" The president's eyes glittered. "It's pretty easy, all things considered. It shouldn't be too difficult to get the hang of."
Peach considered those words before letting out a breath and putting on a smile. "Okay. I can do that."
"Uh, guys?" Luigi pointed forward, drawing the fact that the dry bones were rushing toward the trio to Mario and Peach's attention. "We need to act fast! These dry bones look ready to crush us."
"Right! Peach, think cold thoughts. That'll summon an ice ball that you can throw at the dry bones!"
Peach gulped. "Alright?" She stepped forward, trying to ignore the stress of seeing a whole hoard of dry bones rushing toward her at top speed. "Snowmen, slushies, winter holidays…" an ice flower formed in her hands, and not a moment too soon. The dry bones were mere feet away. Not even waiting for Mario's instructions, she hurled the ice ball at the dry bones closest to her. It froze into a block of ice the size of a thwomp. The other dry bones stopped, looking upon their frozen brethren with an emotion none of them had expressed earlier: fear.
A smile graced Peach's lips. "Oh, that felt good!" Thinking about other cold thoughts she rushed forward with more ice balls forming in her hands. To her delight, the dry bones ran away from her, mostly likely feeling that their doom was nigh. Peach felt good seeing this, and when she froze other dry bones in place, her sense of satisfaction multiplied by about twenty percent. Seriously, she had never done something like this before! She had never done something like this before, and she was feeling a form of grief at that fact. This was exhilarating, this was amazing, and it made her feel powerful. Insanely powerful, wickedly powerful.
"Keep going, Peach!" Mario cheered. "You're doing great!"
Peach's heart welled with pride. The way Mario cheered for her… where was he her whole life? Where had he been; his words brought her spirits up in ways that nothing else in the world could compete with. She giggled, her face feeling warm and her heart feeling light.
"YAAH!" The queen hurled more ice balls at the dry bones. She was able to see their expressions when they were in their frozen state, and what was interesting was that, despite being skeletons without any muscles in their faces, their fear was visible for all to see. Peach hurled more ice balls before getting an idea. She looked toward one of the frozen skeletons. "I wonder…" she rushed forward and kicked it with her right foot, making it slide forward. It ran into other dry bones like they were bowling pins, shattering their bones and crushing them underfoot. Laughing, Peach kicked more of the ice blocks. They slid across the ashy ground with ease, making life much easier for the Beanbean queen.
After a little bit, Peach had finally reached the last ice block. She kicked it, running over and destroying the last batch of dry bones. The ice block itself smashed into the wall of one of the houses, shattering and sending ice and bone fragments everywhere. Peach stopped to catch her breath, feeling the effects of the adrenaline wearing off. Wiping her brow, she turned back to the Mario brothers. Her heart fluttered when she saw Mario running up to her while beaming.
"Oh Peach, that was incredible!" He laughed. "You… you were amazing!"
Peach giggled, her face growing warmer. "Thank you." She looked at Mario's face, feeling all sorts of different emotions. Emotions that she never felt before, emotions that felt so good that she could easily dedicate her life to chasing them. Looking upon Mario, the president of a powerful nation who just so happened to be praising her, everything felt different. Everything felt better. "I didn't even know I had it in me."
Mario chuckled. "Oh, I beg to differ. You've always had it in you." He paused and took hold of her hand. "You've always had it in you."
The beating of Peach's heart was smooth and steady. Mario just brought out the best in her, didn't he? He made her feel things, he made her look at life in an entirely new and different way. Holding his hand, being in his presence… it felt right. It felt as though everything in her life was lining up for the first time since her coronation. Possibly for the first time in her entire existence.
"Thank you." Peach struggled over the right words to say, wondering if there was anything she could say to this amazing man. She was just about to open her mouth when, suddenly and without warning, Mario slapped her across the face. "OWW!" Confused and hurt, she rubbed her cheek. "What was that for?"
"Sorry," Mario said, chuckling sheepishly as he did. "I did that in order to deactivate the power-up." Mario gestured toward her, and she saw that her outfit had transitioned back into its regular pink color. Blinking, she looked back at Mario, who scratched the back of his head. "I apologize; I probably should've given you some kind of warning."
Peach let out a breath, one filled with relief. "It's alright. No harm done." Well, that wasn't entirely true. Thinking about the fact she thought Mario was doing something to intentionally hurt her (even though she knew that wasn't the case now) made her feel… interesting.
"Alright." Mario put his happy face back on. "Anyway, we should probably keep going. We need to get to Bowser's Castle sooner rather than later…"
"What's going on here?"
Mario and Peach blinked. Turning, they saw what appeared to be some sort of hammer brother approaching them. Peach looked at Mario, noticing that he was sweating.
"That's one of Bowser's guards," he whispered. He put his hand in front of Peach. "We need to be careful; these guys can be unpredictable." He stepped toward the hammer brother. "Greetings, good sir."
"President Mario?" The hammer brother blinked. "What are you doing here? For that matter… where are all the dry bones?"
Peach blinked again. Mario started stuttering. "You… you came here because of the dry bones?"
"Of course! King Bowser got an intruder alert here and sent me to take care of it." The hammer bro stepped forward, looking more and more confused by the second. "Seriously, where are those dry bones? I've really been looking forward to using my hammer."
Mario smiled the tiniest bit. "Well…" he gestured toward Peach. "I think you have Peach to thank for the lack of dry bones. She got rid of all of them, every single last one."
The hammer bro guard gawked. "This… this beanish woman did…" he shook his head, putting on a serious face. "Well, thank you, miss."
"Uh… you're welcome." Peach started feeling nervous, and she wasn't even one hundred percent sure why.
"I would recommend you and your party come with me." The hammer bro kept the serious look on his face before smiling. "King Bowser would be pretty pleased to hear about this."
Peach couldn't help but smile.
AN: Hey guys, sorry this chapter was so short. I hope you all enjoyed it, and... Merry Christmas :)