Chapter 8: CHAPTER VIII
The walk from the entrance towards the throne room was long. It was not as if Mario was not familiar with the place. After all the times that duty bounded him to rescue Princess Peach, he knew most of the castle's layouts like the back of his hand.
Koopas, Lakitus, Goombas, Boos, and many soldiers from Bowsette's army gazed upon him as he was guided to the throne room. Some pairs of eyes were hateful, others were confused, and some were even frightful of the red-and-blue hero. So many of them have paid the price from a battle with Mario; occasionally from both Mario brothers.
Despite the weight of these many gazes, he paid no mind to it, whistling and carrying his luggage. The order had been given; no one was to harm Mario in this truce. Of course, Mario was no fool; never he would give the Koopa troops a reason to fight as well. He, too, would have to behave well. And that was his goal as he walked behind the Hammer brothers. All that he could think of was saving the Koopa princess; not from danger, but from her past.
That episode had done a change in Mario's mind. Saving someone from her past was not an easy task. Fighting with fists was not the answer, and such goal took a good amount of time to accomplish. But he did not care about such details. He was determined to change the terrorized face that she had the previous night.
"If I may," one of the Hammer brothers asked as he dropped an eye on Mario, "where did this idea of a truce come from?"
"Yeah," said the other brother. "One day we were gearing up for war, then the next thing we know, our Highness cancels the whole thing. Did something happen between the two of you or something? What gives?"
Princess Bowsette hid the details about the events of her death experience; for obvious reasons of course. Mario was not going to betray that confidentiality.
He simply shrugged. "People change, I guess..."
"Weird... After all this time of wanting to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom, now there's that story of truce. I don't buy it."
"I really don't-a mind the idea," Mario added, "but if you two don't-a like this, I'm sure that Princess Bowsette would listen to your complaints."
The Hammer brothers instantly froze on such suggestion. They already envisioned a nightmarish consequence on questioning their princess's motives. Thrown through several walls or into lava, torture, burn to ashes; those were the first ideas that came in their mind.
"Y-you know something, Mario?" one of them said with a little fear in his voice. "Truce is good; it's actually great! I mean why do we always have to go to war?"
The other twin nodded frenetically nodded. "Right! I mean, it leaves us to do some things we didn't have time to do! I'm all for a truce!"
Mario sighed in relief. It was a good thing that no one dared to challenge her authority and decision-making in the Koopa kingdom. Mario did not want to be cornered to say something he would later regret. After all, it was a sensitive topic; something deep and personal regarding her past. He had no right to speak of it to someone else.
They arrived at the long corridor preceding the tall gates leading to Bowsette's throne room.
That corridor had no secret to the plumber. He ran through it many times for the duty of rescuing Princess Peach. The only difference that it bore today was the total lack of traps along the way.
Mario was always curious about a certain detail regarding this space. Just like her seven siblings, Bowsette was born from Bowser. And yet, since her rise to power, not once the castle and its walls had paid homage to either her father nor her brothers and sister. Mario guessed it had to be something related to her nightmares and her past. Reminiscing of her near-death experience, Mario made a mental note not to ask about her father and siblings. King Bowser along seven of his eight children had died through an awful and ground-shaking explosion that occurred in this same castle. That was the story that all knew. Mario decided to leave it at that.
As he and the Hammer brothers walked closely to the tall doors, a small but angered figure cladded in blue gazed at them. And not in the warmest of ways.
Kamek was awaiting Mario's arrival.
"Uh oh..." said one of the Hammer brothers. "This can't be good."
"What's-a going on?" Mario asked. His answer was quickly answered by the sight of Kamek. "Mamma Mia... Him again..."
"By the look of his face, he doesn't look happy. And worse, I fear that he might let his anger out on us."
Mario was too well acquainted with Kamek; literally since he and his brother had been babies. He had always found it creepy that this Koopa sorcerer tried to kidnap him while being a little infant. If they had been some years older, perhaps Mario and Luigi would had needed many years of therapy to overcome such ordeal.
"Hey guys," Mario called the Hammer brothers, "how about you let me go here to deal with Kamek? He can't-a harm me, but I wouldn't want you to be his practice targets."
"REALLY?" The twins seemed very relieved of this suggestion. "We owe you one!" They left Mario some thirty feet from the doors where Kamek stood.
Loyal to himself, Mario walked towards the door as Kamek's figure became closer and bigger. This one's hatred towards the plumber became felt as he walked closer to the doors.
As he arrived, he paid no mind to the wizard. Mario started pushing one of the large doors.
"What do you think you're doing?" Kamek spoke. Bitterness dressed his tone.
"You-a know that Bowsette is expecting me, so here I am. Do you have a problem with that?"
"Oh, you have no idea!" Kamek came to Mario's face. "I don't know what you're planning to do with her, but I will haunt you day and night and not leave you a single moment alone with her!"
"Don't you got other babies to kidnap, Kamek? Or were you just obsessed with us? Which was 50 shades of-a creepiness and pedophilia all in one!"
"How dare you!" Kamek growled at him. "You and your brother have been a pain in my ass ever since you were toddlers!"
"Well, that's what you get when you're a baby-kidnapping creep." Mario replied with a smug on his face.
"Oh, you want to play buffoon!" Kamek's hands boiled suddenly in magic. "I'll give you one right here, right now!"
"I'm not sure Bowsette will like this if you zap her guest to smithereens."
"Oh, she'll understand! I will wipe you out of existence! And trust me, she'll thank me for it!"
One of the doors slammed open like a quick gust of wind; it revealed the Koopa princess. And she was not happy.
Her eye pupils slit again and carried a blood shade. Raw power embedded her whole body into a luminous shade of darkened pink. Her body was a half taller than her usual self. While her gaze weighted like daggers onto Kamek, the sorcerer was paralyzed by the dread and fear nourished by Bowsette's imposing dominance at the moment.
"No, Kamek," she said in a grave tone. "I don't reward nor thank disobedience!"
"Y-your... You-your Highness!" Kamek stuttered. "I-I was j-just...!"
Her large face came close to Kamek's whimpering self. "YOU. OUT. OF. MY. SIGHT. NOOOOOOOOW!!!!!!!!!"
Her roaring order trembled the entire castle. Fear struck the wizard so much that he disappeared in a quick smoke of magic.
She sighed annoyingly as she returned to her normal form. Now that she had dealt with her Kamek problem, she noticed Mario's absence as her eyes looked for him in the corridor. Perhaps the recent angered cry that she had just unleashed had scared him away, she thought. But that was not Mario's style to run away from that.
Scratching the back of her head while looking around, she noticed a leg sticking out from the door that she had slammed open. She swung the door inward. There lied Mario; lying on the floor, unconscious and with a smacking red bump on his forehead.
The embarrassment on her face was immediate.
"Oups..."
**
"Reeeally sorry about that," Bowsette apologized.
"It's-a okay," Mario said smiling. "I'm quite used to it by now."
The two of them sat around the round table in her bedroom. Mario had an ice pack on his forehead to calm his newly gained bump.
"I see Kamek is as charming as-a always," Mario said.
She sighed. "He means no harm, but he tends to be too overprotective. Don't worry about him, he won't be a bother."
"Thanks. Oh, and thank you for the ice pack as well."
"Well, you're my guest. And I knocked you out cold, so."
Mario let out a humbled laugh. "You know, it's nice."
"What's nice?" She did not seem to appreciate the sound of the word.
"You and me, talking-a casually. It's refreshing."
She looked sideways from his stare. Mario noticed her evading the topic but smiled anyway. He knew such things was new to her. He did not desire to haste things up.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" she asked. "Us, being roommates and chummy like that?"
"Why wouldn't it be?"
"Because we've—"
Awkwardly, as if fate wielded it, the growling of their stomachs resonated at the same time. It was already 10'o clock in the evening and none of them had their supper.
Bowsette sighed at her hunger. "Well, I guess we both missed dinner at this time, huh."
"I could-a really go for a pizza right now..."
"I never had one of those 'pizzas'... Are they any good?"
Mario's eyes lit like it was Christmas day. Perhaps everyone in the world had a taste of pizza at least once in their lifetime. But Bowsette did not. He did not see this as strange, but more as an opportunity to make her know the marvel culinary of such a legendary-known meal.
"OH MIO DIO!" he shouted happily, taking Bowsette by surprise. "You never had pizza?"
"Well, no... Who in their right mind would deliver here? And none of my cooks know how to make it."
Bowsette did not understand her new roommate's sudden enthusiasm regarding pizza, while Mario was too well-acquainted to it. He had wanted to build a good comradeship with Bowsette; this was the perfect experience to build on.
"This is going to be so great-a!" he said happily and determined. "Let's go to your kitchen! We'll make a fantastic pizza!"
"Umm, okay?"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone