FicWad

Another revised story.

Question Box

Box 15: Go Fish

The moon shone brightly in the clear midnight skies, serving to add elegance to the peaceful atmosphere of the lake. Its reflection could be clearly seen in the mirror like still waters, as clearly as the ferocious creature hiding under the liquid, but the two brothers dared not look. It had been hours since they became trapped in the middle of the lake. When they arrived the sun was still up and now it had long since gone into slumber, leaving the moon to rule the skies.

"You'd think Kamek would hide dangerous things like this," Lemmy commented while his brother Iggy remained silent.

xoxox xox xoxox

It had all started earlier that day when the two koopalings snuck into Kamek's storage room of magical items. "I don't think we're supposed to be here," Iggy had warned.

If only Lemmy had listened to his brother's premonition that something would go wrong. "It's alright, we won't break anything." Lemmy carefully guided the ball he always balanced himself on between tables and boxes covered with dust. Clearly Kamek hasn't been there for a long time. He probably forbade the goomba maids from cleaning that room in fear of something valuable or dangerous being broken.

Iggy appeared to be occupied gently poking an old crystal ball as if expecting an image to appear in it and show him the future. He shrugged when it didn't happen. Perhaps the crystal ball's magic only worked for magikoopas or maybe just for Kamek.

Lemmy slowly and carefully pulled a purple cloth that was covering something in a corner of the dark dusty room. It was something big. "Hey Iggy, look at this."

Iggy walked towards his brother's location, avoiding random items scattered across the gray stone floor. He adjusted his glasses and squinted at the object to come to a conclusion as to what it could possibly be despite the lack of light in the room. "It's a boat."

"Why would Kamek have a boat? Doesn't he travel everywhere on his broom?" Lemmy felt as if there was something more to that boat than met the eye.

"Maybe it's a flying boat?" Iggy theorized.

Upon closer examination, Lemmy found a rolled up piece of paper trapped between the side of the boat and the gray stone wall sustaining it vertically. "Maybe the answer could be here." He pulled out the paper, careful not to tear it apart. The piece of paper was obviously quite old. It had turned yellow due to its age and the words written on it in elegant black ink calligraphy were barely readable. Lemmy silently scanned the paper with his eyes, occasionally skipping a sentence he didn't think was too important until he found the answers they were looking for. "It's a special boat that can repel cheep-cheeps!" Lemmy announced his great discovery.

"Interesting, do you think it really works?" Iggy immediately regretted asking that question.

Lemmy smiled, "there's only one way to find out."

Iggy shook his head. "I was hoping you didn't say that."

"Where's your sense of fun and adventure?" Lemmy hopped and fell in a sitting position on his ball, still perfectly balance atop it. "Remember how we used to go fishing for cheep-cheeps, but we could never catch the big ones, because we could only fish around the lake and never in the middle?"

"Yes and I also remember the reason why we didn't go deeper into the cheep-cheep lake. The last time we tried that, they ate our boat and were close to eating us," Iggy reminded him.

"Our boat wasn't magical," Lemmy argued.

"There's nothing to guarantee that this one will work. It might not be magical or if it is, the magic may be gone by now. It's so old," Iggy had a feeling that his arguments would be in vain.

"Kamek's spells are better than that. I'm sure this boat still has whatever magic it's supposed to have." Lemmy hopped to his feet, as always standing on top of the ball with perfect balance. "Help me carry it."

Knowing it would be useless to argue, Iggy grabbed the bottom of the boat while Lemmy held the top and they carried it out of the room. Of course the operation couldn't have gone smoothly and they ended up knocking several things down, making a bigger mess than what was already made. Dust took to the air, being pushed by the falling items invading its territory. A domino effect quickly turned the storage room into a disaster area. Coughing from the dust Lemmy and Iggy made it out of the room carrying the boat.

"May I inquire what you wish to accomplish?" A voice suddenly asked. The two koopalings carrying the boat immediately knew the voice belonged to their older brother Ludwig. The boat, which they carried upside down, covered their view, save for the floor, where Iggy who was now in front, could see Ludwig's feet and the end of his tail moving from side to side impatiently and suspiciously.

"We're going fishing for cheep-cheeps," Iggy replied without giving it much thought.

"Kamek will be infuriated by this disorder!" Ludwig tilted his head to the side to get a better view of the door to the storage room behind them. The dust had settled on the floor and items once again, but the mess was a lot bigger than the unorganized clutter that filled the room before.

"He won't mind, he never goes in there anyway," Lemmy quickly made an excuse.

Ludwig shook his head. "If you insist on partaking on the activity of capturing cheep-cheeps, I warn you to stay on the sore."

"Not with this boat!" Lemmy cheered.

"Yeah, it's magical!" Iggy added.

Ludwig wasn't too sure about his brothers' plans, but he decided not to stand in their way. When those two put their minds to something, they didn't stop until they got it. "Be cautious," the oldest prince emphasized one last time.

"We will!" The other two replied as they continued on their way to get all the necessary supplies.

xoxox xox xoxox

Soon the boat was turned right side up and filled with fishing rods, bait and all the necessary equipment to go fishing for cheep-cheeps. Lemmy and Iggy went to the lake in which they eventually became trapped in. Everything was fine in the beginning as they pushed the boat into the water and hopped in. They could see the cheep-cheeps swimming away under the transparent water of the lake. Everything appeared to be going as planned.

The koopalings made their way to the center of the lake where things started to go wrong. A cheerful mood was in the air until a brave cheep-cheep bit Lemmy's paddle. Soon more cheep-cheeps followed, attacking Iggy's paddle as well, until they had completely consumed the two wooden items. "Those didn't have a spell on them," Iggy stated the obvious. They found a boat but no paddles so they had used regular ones.

"I'm sure we'll figure out a way back," Lemmy encouraged. It looked as if they were precisely in the center of the lake. He felt as if they had walked right into a trap, but if the cheep-cheeps were capable of devouring their boat, they would have started by now. The paddles may be gone, but at least they had their boat, fishing rods and a large can of micro-goombas aka bait. "For now let's just enjoy this." Lemmy opened the can of bait, revealing many scared little micro-goombas inside.

"I suppose there's not much else we can do," Iggy picked up a micro-goomba from the can and began tying the end of the fishing rod's line to it. The line had no hook since the micro-goomba was expected to serve as a the bait and hook when it found itself being eaten and bit the cheep-cheep back in a desperate attempt to survive. "Sometimes I think it's a little cruel to use live micro-goombas as bait." The micro-goomba that was squirming in his hand trying to slip away stopped and stared at the koopaling, as if he were an angel of mercy sent from heaven to fight for micro-goomba rights. To that poor little micro-goomba Iggy looked more angelic than any paratroopa he had ever seen.

Lemmy looked thoughtful as he pondered his brother's statement. The micro-goombas watched in silence, hoping and wishing with all their hearts that they would be set free. They dared not protest as koopas shoved them into cans, squished against one another. They didn't fight back when the koopalings that acquired that can of bait and when they were tied to the end of the lines of their fishing rods they merely squirmed in discomfort. They were too scared to move, too small, too helpless, those poor unfortunate little micro-goombas. Today could be the day when all the suffering came to an end. Their hopes were with the two young princes of the Koopa Kingdom.

With a frowning face and sad eyes, Iggy looked the micro-goomba, poor little guy. "He looks so sad and scared. He looks like he's about to cry. It breaks my heart."

Lemmy nodded in agreement, making a sad face as well and looking at the little micro-goomba he held. "Mine's all sad too. He's definitely going to cry. Using micro-goombas as bait is such a mean thing to do."

The koopaling brothers nodded in agreement. "You know what we must do," Iggy voiced.

"Yes," Lemmy agreed.

Then they simultaneously cast their lines into the lake as the unfortunate micro-goomba baits let out high pitched screams of fright. "We love being mean!" They laughed in unison at those silly little micro-goombas who actually believed they felt sorry for them.

"Seriously, do you think we should stop using micro-goombas as bait? What would king dad say?" Iggy inquired.

Lemmy shrugged. "Nothing I'm sure he must have gone fishing with micro-goombas at some point too." Lemmy was right about his guess. What he didn't know was that Clawdia had caught him.

Flashback

Bowser Koopa, much younger at the time, was sitting at the shore of the cheep-cheep lake. That was the same lake that his sons would visit in the future. "Kamek, watch the fishing rod for me. I'm taking a break. I've already caught enough cheep-cheeps today." He took one of the cheep-cheeps he had in a bucket holding it by the tail to make sure it couldn't bite him. He put it on a stick and before the cheep-cheep could eat the stick he breathed fire on it, roasting it to perfection.

"Are we going to spend the entire day here fishing and eating roasted cheep-cheeps?" Kamek ignored the pull of the line of the fishing rod he now held.

"You were the one who said I had to do something other than obsess about when the egg is going to hatch to be just like me," Bowser reminded him. At the time, prince Ludwig Von Koopa was only an egg who was yet to hatch.

Kamek muttered something about a bad premonition and an unlucky future that Bowser didn't quite catch. He reeled in the line and threw the cheep-cheep into the air. Aimed at the cheep-cheep, three magical figures emerged from Kamek's wand, a blue square, a yellow circle and a red triangle. The magic reached the cheep-cheep in mid air and as the three figures danced around it, its form began to change until it turned into a goomba.

Bowser looked amused. "Now that's just cruel." He laughed as the used to be cheep-cheep, now goomba, freaked out and ran back into the lake. There the other cheep-cheep didn't recognize it and ate it. It was after the show was already over that Clawdia arrived.

"Bowser, Kamek, I didn't know I would find you here. I'm just going for a walk, isn't it a nice day?" Upon hearing the queen, the last five little micro-goombas left in Bowser's can of bait started to make squeaky calls for help. "What's this?" Clawdia took a peek inside the can. "Oh, how cute!" She picked up the five little micro-goombas. "What little darlings, where did you find them?"

Bowser and Kamek looked at each other, then Bowser quickly replied. "There was a very mean koopa troopa that was using them as fishing bait and I saved them!"

Sure the queen's perfectly manicures pink claws were extremely sharp and when she went inside her virtually indestructible shell and spun around, she could reach great speed and jump quite high, like a lethal cannonball, but despite all that power, she had a very gentle nature and a lot of love for children. It was that gentle nature and aura of innocence around her that Bowser liked best. "That's so sweet of you. I'm going to take these little guys back to the castle and see if I can find homes for them. I'm sure there are goomba families willing to adopt and if not, we'll take them in ourselves." Clawdia left, cradling the little micro-goombas in her arms.

As soon as she was gone Bowser spoke. "If she's carrying those five little pests, she won't travel via spinning shell, so I'll have time to hurry back to the castle first and make sure there are goombas willing to adopt. There's no way my son is going to have goombas for siblings."

"If Clawdia finds out you were the mean koopa using them as bait, she'll be mad," Kamek stated the obvious.

"I know and that's why I need to get there first to make sure I don't get stuck with those micro-goombas." Bowser took Kamek's broom, "it's not working."

"It's my broom, it only works for me," Kamek informed.

"Then get on!" Bowser ordered. Kamek sighed in frustration and hopped on the broom. The poor overloaded broom took off with a lot of effort. "Why is it so slow?"

"We're too heavy for it," Kamek carefully decided to say 'we' and not 'you'.

"Did you put on weight? How could we be too heavy? You used to give me rides when I was little," Bowser reminded.

"You're not little anymore," Kamek once again stated the obvious, because he felt his king was either purposely ignoring it or simply missed it.

"Or maybe your broom is old," Bowser reasoned.

End of Flashback

"I know goombas have been kicked around for centuries, but I keep thinking about the 'what ifs'. What if it's wrong," Iggy insisted.

"Now you're just over analyzing this," Lemmy paused and gave it some thought. "Goombas and micro-goombas are different, micro-goombas are a lot smaller. They're small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Goombas are small but not that small. There's the difference. The micro-goombas are at the very bottom of our society, that's why they, and not the goombas or the paragoombas, are the bait."

Iggy held his fishing rod with one hand while he placed another under his chin in a thoughtful expression. "Excellent reasoning my brother, it makes perfect sense. I feel a lot better about using micro-goombas as bait now."

"Glad to help," Lemmy got the feeling that his reasoning wasn't so great after all, but he quickly shook it off.

A little while passed in silence until Iggy felt a tug on his fishing line. "I got one! I got one!" Why didn't they bite before?"

"It must be the boat's magic scaring them. At least they can't eat the boat even if they take a while to start biting." Lemmy too felt a pull on his fishing line. The two koopalings reeled in the cheep-cheeps and placed them in buckets where they could continue living for just a little while longer so that they would stay fresh. Of course the buckets were covered to avoid having one of the little beasts jump on them and bite them.

Time continued to pass slowly but steadily for the koopalings. It was almost dinner time and they decided that it was time to head home. Only one problem, they didn't have any paddles. "We could use our fishing rods," Iggy suggested. "They'll probably get eaten, but it's better than being stuck here."

"Okay, let's go as fast as we can to get the most out of them," Lemmy agreed. The plan was carried out, but they went in circles in the water not having decided which way they were supposed to paddle. Before an agreement was made, the fishing rods had already been devoured by the ferocious cheep-cheeps, then the arguments began.

The two koopalings who usually got along so well, blamed each other for their current situation and finally settled into an angry silence. Time passed painfully slow for them until the sun sank in the horizon and darkness overcame the already relatively dark land. It was amazing how brightly the stars shone in the Darklands. Even if the days looked gloomy with cloudy skies and faint sunlight, at night the skies showed their true beauty.

"You'd think Kamek would hide dangerous things like this," Lemmy commented while his brother Iggy remained silent. Lemmy remembered when it all started earlier that day, reliving the events in his mind. "I don't like it when it's so quiet."

"Get used to it because I'm never talking to you again," Iggy finally replied.

"You just did," Lemmy pointed out.

"I didn't mean to."

"You did it again."

"I'm hungry," Iggy decided not to argue anymore. He knew as well as Lemmy did that by the time the sun rose again, they would be the best of friends just like before.

"If I could breathe fire like king dad and Ludwig, I would cook some cheep-cheeps," Lemmy certainly wished he could. Ludwig had been the only one who truly mastered the fire breath so far.

"I wish Ludwig was here, I wish king dad was here or even Kamek, even if he gets mad at us for taking his boat," Iggy voiced.

"At least the cheep-cheeps can't eat it." Soon they drifted back into silence, looking up at the starry skies. Suddenly, the shadow of a figure could be seen in the bright moonlight. It had wings. It was a paratroopa. "Iggy look!" Lemmy pointed at the paratroopa.

"A paratroopa, we're saved!" Iggy cheered.

The paratroopa with the light blue shell, spotted the koopalings and flew down landing on the boat. "I was sent by king Bowser to find you two. He's not happy with your little disappearing act."

"We didn't want to be late, but we're trapped here," Lemmy explained.

"Yeah, we need to get back to shore away from this cheep-cheep death trap," Iggy added.

The paratroopa noticed a rope among their fishing equipment. She tied it to the front of the boat on a little wooden Kamek figure sticking out as decoration. "I'll pull the boat to shore." She took flight and pulled as hard as she could.

"Skyri over here!" A koopa troopa called from the lake shore.

"Keres, you came just in time." The paratroopa threw the end of the rope at the yellow shelled koopa troopa and they finished pulling the boat to shore.

xoxox xox xoxox

The group of four went back to the Koopa Castle, where the two koopalings would have to come up with a good excuse for taking Kamek's boat. "Cheep-cheep on a stick!" They both agreed.

"We'll get Ludwig to roast the Cheep-cheeps we caught on a stick," Lemmy started.

"Then we'll give them to king dad and Kamek, then they won't be mad anymore!" Iggy finished. It was just another day for the koopalings, filled with more mischief than the last, but probably not as much as the next.

End of Box 15

Disclaimer, I don't own Mario.