Chapter 10 A Cloudy Girl

Today was proving to be an average day, which Aria didn't mind. Not every day or night could be legendary; some were just normal and unmemorable. But that didn't make them any less special. Sure, things weren't exactly one hundred percent okay, considering current events, but... eh, it was still a nice simple day overall. Sometimes, a simple day where you lived through the normal ups and downs in your life was invigorating. Sometimes it was necessary. Sometimes, it was beautiful.

Aria took a deep breath, partly to calm her nerves but mostly to smell her dinner baking in the oven. A smile graced her lips as she took in the scent, detectable even from her spot in the living room. She got up from her chair and went to check the kitchen timer, as she knew she didn't have long until her meal was finished. Pleasure filled her when she saw that the timer read two minutes. She had been proven right.

Without any words, Aria got some oven mitts and waited until the timer ran out. She even counted down the last ten seconds, as if this was a New Year's Day celebration. Her stomach growled when the timer went off, and it only growled louder when she opened the oven. That pot pie… oh man. She wouldn't be able to eat it all by herself, but… dang did she want to! The golden crust that reminded her of sunshine, the aroma that consisted of turkey and vegetables and gravy… oh mama. She didn't know if this was her favorite dish, but it was definitely up there. And what made it extra special was her plan; she was going to have a slice today and then she would put the rest in the fridge in order to have leftovers for at least the next five days. That was delicious meal planning on a budget for you!

She set the pot pie on top of the oven, turning off said oven as she put her oven mitts away. Smiling, she got her phone out and took a picture of the pie. She immediately sent the picture to Ludwig via the text chain, excited to see his response. She must've waited ten minutes to see what he thought of her dinner, but he never responded. Aria felt a pang because of this. Not because she felt like she was being ignored, but mostly because the major news of what was going on in the Koopa Kingdom played on loop in her head. Ludwig couldn't respond because he and the rest of the royal family were taking part in an invasion. Ludwig couldn't respond because he was forced to bow to the whims of this guy named Bone Mage, a figure whom Ludwig didn't have a sliver of trust towards

Aria sighed. These days… it was so strange how quickly things had gone from peaceful and happy to serious and severe. All one had to do was look at Aria's text chain for the proof; Ludwig had been frequently messaging her all of last night, and today… nothing. Yes, it took less than an entire day for everything to change, for everything to turn sour. Was Aria surprised by this? Not necessarily; sometimes, life was like that. But just because she wasn't surprised by this didn't mean she wasn't saddened by it.

With this thought in mind, she dished herself some pot pie and went to sit at the dining room table. She gingerly took bites, wishing that Ludwig was here to eat with her. With how fast the political climate in the Koopa Kingdom was shifting, Aria genuinely started worrying that she wouldn't get many opportunities to see him anymore. And if that was the case… no, no, she couldn't think about that. So what if the current events in the Kingdom were taking a nose dive; that didn't mean Ludwig didn't care about her. She knew in her heart of hearts that their relationship would survive this. It had survived Ludwig telling Aria that he had killed her in another timeline, which for others would probably be a deal breaker. If their relationship could survive that, it could survive anything.

Snickering to herself, Aria took another bite of her pot pie. She chewed slowly and carefully, hoping to enjoy this meal as much as possible. However, right as she was about to take another bite, she heard a strange sound. It kinda sounded like buzzing, but that didn't make a whole lot of sense. There weren't a lot of bugs in the Koopa Kingdom that made buzzing sounds, even in her hometown of Sparksville. Aria looked around, hoping to see the source of this noise. She looked up…

And gasped. Something strange was happening to the air. It was like the atmosphere was bending around a specific focal point, kinda like… magic. Aria rose to her feet, her heart pounding. Reaching into her hammerspace, she searched for something to defend herself. A magic wand. A demon-hunting tool. Heck, maybe even a baseball bat. All of these would be ideal in this scenario, especially because anomalies like this were NEVER a good sign. In her experience, this always meant that some evil entity was on the loose. Her heartbeat escalating, Aria's search for a weapon grew faster and more desperate when…

"AHH!"

Aria blinked. That… that kinda sounded like a young girl. Demons, which were the creatures Aria usually encountered in her line of work, didn't make sounds like that. Right as she was beginning to question what exactly was going on, a portal opened up above her table. Out of that portal fell a person, who landed face-first in the pot pie.

"What the heck?" Aria stepped forward, observing this new stranger. They were unlike any creature she had ever seen or read about. For one thing, they seemed to be entirely made of cloud. Their white-blue hair was made of cloud, their arms and back were made of cloud. Aria blinked, her confusion doubling as this person/creature pulled their head out of the pot pie. They… they kinda looked like a young woman. An eighteen-year-old, to be more precise.

"Oh… man," the cloudy girl said as she wiped some of Aria's dinner off her face. "I really need to learn how to perfect portal spells."

Aria blinked again. While dealing with a boatload of fear, she stepped forward. "Uh…" her tongue felt weak, her vocal cords frozen. She looked upon this strange girl, with so many questions swarming around in her head that she didn't even know which one to ask first. Biting her lip, she took another cautious step forward. "What are you?"

"Who?" The girl pointed to herself. "Me?" She hopped off the table and stood in front of Aria, who backed up purely on instinct. "My name is Cloudia. Princess Cloudia."

"Princess Cloudia…" Aria's heart pounded in her ears.

"Yep! I'm the Princess of the Cloud Kingdom!" As Aria gave her a confused look, she giggled. "I don't blame you for not knowing about it; it's pretty out of the way. Some may even call it a secret place." She giggled some more.

"Uh… okay." Aria really didn't know what to say at this point. "So… you're a princess… of some secret kingdom nobody has ever heard of before… you're some kind of cloud creature… and for some reason you decided to show up right in the middle of my dining room."

"Yep! You got it pretty on the nose!" Cloudia exclaimed. She raised her hand and rubbed her face. "Speaking of which, I think I still might have some food on my own nose…" All of a sudden, her cloud complexion turned red. "Oh, sorry for ruining your dinner, by the way."

"It's… fine." Aria felt a little squirmy, but thankful she was starting to recover. This was mostly because she was certain that Cloudia… wasn't dangerous. She was giving no sign that she was, as none of the things she said and none of the body language she displayed could be interpreted as red flags. Sure, Aria wasn't one hundred percent ready to say that this was a safe scenario, given how Cloudia was still a strange creature who came out of nowhere. But even still, she wasn't nearly as on edge as she was when she first heard the buzzing.

"Why are you here?" Aria managed to find the strength to ask.

"Why am I here? Well, there's a very simple reason why. You see, I…" she stopped. "I…" Her face fell. She looked down at the ground, fidgeting with her white-gray dress. "Oh, shoot."

"What's wrong?"

Cloudia chuckled sheepishly. "I… kinda forgot."

Aria raised an eyebrow. "You forgot?"

"Yeah." Cloudia adjusted her white crown, which Aria just now noticed had stickers on it. "I… I'm sorry." Now it was Cloudia who was looking uncomfortable. "I'm always forgetting things. I keep telling myself to keep a planner or sticky notes or something to remind myself what I need to do, but… I keep forgetting to do that too."

Aria snickered. "Well, that's a vicious cycle if I've ever seen one." She stopped to consider what to do next. "Well… I imagine you're here for an important reason, so…" she looked back toward the kitchen. "Why don't we do this; I'll heat up some of my pot pie for you, and you can work on trying to remember what exactly it is that you wanted to tell me. Sound like a deal?"

Cloudia blinked. "You'd… you'd be willing to do that?" Her face lit up. "Oh, thank you! No one has ever done that for me before!" She paused. "Well… okay, my servants are pretty dedicated to serving me, but they're paid to do that. You're doing it out of the kindness of your heart, which is…" she squeed. "Oh, thank you, Aria!"

Aria smiled at her. "You're welcome, Cloudia." She started making her way toward the kitchen. When she opened the fridge, she stopped and blinked. "Wait, how does she know my name?" She stood in place, not even bothering to get the pie for a solid minute as she considered this strange fact. In some ways, it struck her as even stranger than Cloudia just appearing out of thin air.

Frowning, Aria got the pot pie, put it in the microwave for a minute, and brought it back to Cloudia. The cloudy girl licked her equally cloudy lips as Aria served her the pie. As Aria took a seat, she couldn't take her eyes off this strange princess.

"Cloudia?" Cloudia looked up from her pie. "How did you know my name is Aria?"

Cloudia blinked. "Uh…" She swallowed her bite of pot pie. "Well…" she sighed. "Okay, what I'm about to say might sound a little creepy, but… I've been watching you."

Aria nearly fell out of her chair. "You've been WHAT?"

"Sorry! I'm sorry! I know how it sounds, but… hear me out." Cloudia put her fork down. "It's not you specifically who I've been watching. It's… it's actually Lemmy Koopa." Aria raised an eyebrow, all while Cloudia looked wickedly uncomfortable. She must've realized that the hole she was digging for herself was getting bigger and bigger. Even still, she knew she couldn't just stop digging, so she continued. "I… I was fortunate enough to happen across one of his clown shows a while back, and I just…" A small smile graced her lips. "He just seemed incredible. His sense of humor, his infectious optimism, his will to be happy and caring no matter what… he was amazing. He IS amazing." She put her hand to her heart. "So, every once in a while, I used a crystal ball that belongs to the royal family of the Cloud Kingdom in order to see what he's up to. You know, just to check in and see if everything's going alright for him." Her face fell as she looked back at Aria. "And… well, seeing how you've interacted with him before, you wound up in some of the scenes I saw." She let out a breath. "That's how I know your name."

Aria sat still for a few minutes. "I… I'm not sure how to feel about that."

"I know, and I'm sorry." Cloudia picked at her food. "I understand it isn't exactly… proper, but… well, I never really had the guts to just go up and introduce myself to Lemmy." She sunk a little into the chair. "That would be kinda… awkward, you know."

Aria snorted. "Considering how this is already plenty awkward…" she mumbled under her breath. She snuck one more glance at Cloudia before sighing. "Well, for what it's worth, I don't think Lemmy would mind meeting you." She paused. "After the Koopalings are done helping Bowser and Bone Mage with his invasion, of course."

"OH!" Cloudia gasped and slammed her palm down on the table. "THAT'S why I'm here! I remember now!"

"You do?"

Cloudia nodded. "It's the Koopalings! They're in some grave danger right now, and we need to help them."

Aria's heart skipped a beat. "Danger?"

"Yes! Danger!" Cloudia jumped out of her chair. "C'mon Aria, we have to get to Bowser's Castle! And we need to do it fast!"

Aria's stomach churned. The Koopalings were in danger? What kind of danger? What exactly was going on here? Aria wanted to ask all these questions, and yet she figured Cloudia wouldn't have the time to answer them all. So, she decided to trust this strange cloud princess and follow after her.