Mario and the Koopa Conspiracy, Martin C. Featherworth [book recommendations .txt] 📗

he would be able to go home and not talk to anyone for the rest of the evening. But…did he want to do that? Mario was ill, and he needed some medicine gravely. Luckily, the trio drew near to the pipe.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————— “Mario, you don’t look well. Are you okay?” asked Princess Peach. Luigi, Peach, and Mario had rejoined with Yoshi at Peach’s Castle. Everyone stood outside the castle on the bridge over the river that formed a “moat” and fed into the nearby lake. They were just about to enter back inside.
“Don’t make him answer that. Let’s go in and settle down a bit,” Yoshi said, putting his green arm on Mario’s shoulder. Normally, he would have pushed it off, but Mario accepted the sign of affection this time. “We’ve all had a rough time,” he said in a calming voice. The princess nodded in agreement.
“I guess we could all use some wind-down time,” she said.
“And we can tell you about what happened,” Luigi said to Yoshi.
“What did happen?” Yoshi wondered aloud. “I guess we can save that for inside,” he said. The four moved closer to the castle’s door, and it was opened for them by a servant toad. Peach stepped in first, then Yoshi, then Luigi, and finally Mario.
“Wow, Princess… It looks like you renovated,” Mario observed while taking in the sights of the room. It had been years since Mario had even entered the castle.
When he had first gone there, the walls of the inside of the foyer had been painted to look like trees and clouds, with the “sun” being the central source of light. A stained-glass window made to look like a princess also gave light. It was built into the wall over the door from outside. The floor in the room was gray and white tiled with a sun rug underneath the light. Also, there were two doors at either side of the room that were marked with gold stars. One set of stairs led up to an additional level of doors marked with stars on an elevated area with red carpet. There was a set of two doors on either side of the staircase that led to a hallway, which gave way to the castle courtyard.
Now, however, it was a bit different. The walls of the foyer were painted a crimson red with gold accents around the window, the ceiling, and the floor. The “sun” was still there, and so were two doors at either side of the room. In fact, all of the doors were still there…but with a few additions. The grey and white tile and the rug with the sun printed on it were still there as well as the doors. The red carpet atop the higher level of doors was now royal purple with a printed design. Ornate tapestries hung on the walls. It looked much nicer than it had before, Mario thought. More like a castle should look.
“Yeah, I redecorated a while ago. Wow, the last time you were in here was when it was still the trees and clouds!” Peach replied to Mario. “I thought the landscape on the wall would look better than it did, and I just got tired of it. This…” She motioned around the room. “…is how it looked when I was a young girl.” Her eyes showed a faint glimpse of sadness, almost too small to recognize.
“Well, I think it’s nice. It looks…regal,” said Mario. He continued to look into Peach’s eyes. He had noticed the sadness…of course he had. How could he miss it? The four kept moving, turning to the left and walking in through a door that hadn’t been there before. Or…had it? Mario didn’t even remember. The door led to what was some kind of sitting room, furnished with sofas, chairs, and a coffee table in the middle. No, Mario had never been in here before. Yoshi, Luigi, and Mario all sat down on the furniture, finding that it was quite comfortable. Mario and Yoshi shared a couch and Luigi sat in one of the chairs. Peach still stood.
“Does anyone want any refreshments? I can get my cooks to make something for you,” Peach asked the group.
“I’m fine, but thanks,” said Yoshi.
“Are you sure?” Peach asked again.
“I can eat at home. You don’t have to do that,” said Luigi. “Don’t feel like it right now…”
“Hmm… Looks like I’ll have to plan a dinner for all of us sometime,” Peach told herself. She looked right at Mario. “What about you, Mario? I meant to give you some cake earlier.” Mario closed his eyes at the word “cake.”
“No, no, no, I don’t need cake. Don’t need it,” he said, shaking his head repetitively. He stopped and opened his eyes. “Yes, I do. Please…” he muttered. Peach sighed and walked over to the far wall, opening the door to a conjoining room. She said a few words to a servant and came out moments later with a slice of doubled-tiered vanilla cake, which she handed to Mario. Seconds upon receiving the slice, Mario was already halfway done eating it. The cake itself was one of the best he had ever had, but that was not why he devoured it right up. Yoshi turned to him while he was mid-swallow.
“You have problems,” he said.
“I know I have problems. That’s why I’m eating this cake,” Mario said under his breath. The princess shook her head.
“No more for you,” declared Peach. “No way. Not while you’re like this.” Mario stuffed the last of the cake in his mouth and set the plate on the coffee table. He looked right into Peach’s eyes. She directed her attention away from Mario, who seemed to be having some issues.
“So then, tell me what happened,” Yoshi said. “I want to know what that kidnapping was all about.” Luigi looked to Peach.
“Should we tell him the long or short version?” he asked.
“Definitely the long version. He needs to know everything,” Peach replied. “I’ll start if you don’t want to.” Luigi nodded.
“That would be great,” he said, relieved.
“Okay. Feel free to correct me if I get any of it wrong,” the princess began. “First of all, Luigi said that Bowser didn’t want to kidnap me this time. He said he’d been put up to it.” Yoshi turned his gaze away in thoughtfulness.
“Do you know who it was?” he questioned. “I think I know…” he said quietly.
“Kamek. Kamek the magikoopa,” Luigi said. Yoshi closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath.
“Kamek…that son of a chain-chomp. He’s been ruining our lives from the beginning!” Yoshi said with a harsh edge in his voice. Peach gaped at him.
“Yoshi!” she gasped. “You’ve never used that kind of language before! Well, at least not around us!”
“I am sorry, I was just angry,” the green dinosaur explained. Everyone stared at him in wide-eyed astonishment. Even Mario. The rest all thought Yoshi to be an upstanding and noble individual. He had never cursed in front of them like he had when he had called Kamek a “son of a chain-chomp.” Yoshi had to have known who Kamek was…and known well. Peach voiced the unspoken thought.
“Will you remind us, who is Kamek exactly?” she asked. Yoshi looked at her in surprise. He moved to Luigi, then Mario.
“You don’t remember?” he confirmed. Nobody said a word. “Well, he’s the one who took you guys when you were babies,” he told Luigi and Mario with urgency. Yoshi turned to Mario. “I’ve told you guys this story, haven’t I?”
“I think you have, but we don’t quite remember,” Mario said quietly. “Will you remind us?”
“Sure thing.” Yoshi turned outward to the group. “You are aware that you came here when you two were babies, right?” Mario and Luigi exchanged glances. 
“You’ve told us this!” exclaimed Mario. Yoshi nodded. “Um…didn’t he kidnap us?”
“Yes. Yes he did,” said the dinosaur. “He kidnapped you two from Earth, and he was taking you back to Koopa Castle. Back before Bowser inherited it…” Yoshi glanced around the room. “He knew something about you guys. He knew you would try to stop him in the future. He knows those things… Anyway, as I was saying, he had taken you. He was flying over Yoshi’s Island when a stork spotted him. He tried to save you guys, but Kamek ran into him and knocked you down, Mario. He flew away with Luigi, but you fell out of the sky…onto my back. You were so little…” Peach, Luigi, and Mario exchanged bewildered glances. How had they not remembered all of this?
“And then you went to get me, and you took us back to our parents,” Luigi concluded.
“Yes, that’s how it happened,” Yoshi said.
“All that is …interesting…considering what Kamek did,” Princess Peach remarked.
“What did he do? Tell me the rest of the story.” Yoshi looked at her with anticipation.
“Well, let’s see… Kamek. He lured Mario and Luigi into a trap and cast some kind of spell over Mario. What was it, exactly?”
“Cosmic clones. I was possessed by cosmic clones,” Mario said quietly. “They wanted me to kill Luigi. I tried to kill him, but I couldn’t stop. They would only leave me if I was dead, so I had Luigi push me off a castle tower.” Yoshi gaped at Mario, turning to Luigi.
“He asked me to,” Luigi said uncomfortably.
“That…must have been awful,” Yoshi said, still disturbed by the notion.
“It was,” said Luigi.
“Horrific,” agreed Mario. A silence hovered over the group of four. Princess Peach broke it.
“Well I sure am glad we’re back and everything’s normal again!” she said with a forced smile, which nobody returned.
“Normal…” Mario trailed off.
“I wouldn’t be so quick to assume that everything will return to how it was before, Princess,” said Yoshi. “I am almost certain that Kamek is not finished with his plan. I believe it is much bigger than the kidnapping.”
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Everyone left the castle and went back to their own homes. Except Peach, of course. All four of them tried to rest and get a good night’s sleep. It didn’t quite work out that way, however.
Mario spent his evening in the most pathetic way possible. He ate an entire pizza by himself on his couch, where he ended up falling asleep. Pizza didn’t solve problems. Neither did cake. Using food (or anything, for that matter) to comfort yourself just made existing problems worse. Nevertheless, Mario did just that. After the attempt to ease his pain with pizza, he had dozed off on his couch, where he had a terrible, vivid dream.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————
“It is there! I am not lying!” a man with an Italian accent yelled from the other room of the crammed, small house. Two young boys sat on the living room floor watching cartoons on an old-fashioned black-and-white television set. Well, at least they tried to watch them; the cartoons were in a language the boys didn’t understand all of.
“Oh, what? Your imaginary world with your big monkey?” a female Italian-accented voice yelled back at the man. The two voices were in the same language as the cartoons, which confused the two boys even more than the fact that they were yelling in the first place.
“Rosa Maria! Sto dicendo la verità! È vero!” the man yelled again. The older of the boys turned off the television to listen. “Posso mostrarti! Posso portarti lì!”
“Stop that, Giorgio! The boys will hear you!” cried the female voice. What ever were they talking about in there?
“Di cosa stanno parlando, Mario?” the younger of the boys asked the older, his voice just above a whisper.
“I don’t know,” the older boy responded. Even if they would have understood everything they were saying, it still would have made little sense to the children.