#goombrielle

Pauline awoke to sunlight streaming through the light-pink canopy of the extremely comfortable bed, feeling someone pressed up close against her chest, breathing evenly. Right, she and Peach had spent the night together again. The princess was curled up, arms wrapped loosely around Pauline, and she seemed to be smiling in her sleep. Pauline wanted so badly to stay, but she could only imagine what would happen if Toad were to come in for his daily duties and find them there.

He was in charge of waking Peach and dressing her. While the princess and the mayor both found that tradition to be extremely silly, it was also necessary for a woman of her status to meet a very specific dress code, and Toad was always there to make sure that she did.

That was why Pauline had to leave. Lying together with nothing to conceal them besides the bedsheets was hardly an appropriate way for Toad to find them, and he usually came in an hour after sunrise. Pauline took Peach’s hands into her own, gently extracting herself from the woman’s embrace. A little sadly, she left a kiss on the woman’s forehead, tucking her in and going to put her clothes on in order to go out into the world.

Just as she finished buttoning her blazer -fortunately, she kept many clean changes of clothes in Peach’s wardrobe now, hidden at the back- she heard the woman in the bed begin to shift. Turning just in time, Pauline saw Peach sit up and stretch, the sheets sliding down and off of her body.

She looked like a goddess in the sunlight, and Pauline couldn’t help but go over to greet her.

“Good morning, princess,” she murmured, sitting next to her on the bed, “up a little early this morning, are we?” Peach mumbled something incoherent, wrapping her arms around Pauline from behind and pulling her into a hug. Pauline chuckled.

“What was that?” she asked.

“Stay with me,” murmured Peach, “just a little longer.”

“Toad comes in an hour,” Pauline gently reminded her.

“I don’t care.” Peach pouted stubbornly, resting her head on Pauline’s shoulder “I want you with me. I’m a grown woman, I should be allowed to sleep with whomever I want.”

“But you’re a monarch,” sighed Pauline.

“Yeah…” mumbled Peach, closing her eyes, “but you’re so warm. Everything else is always so cold.”

“Such is life, princess,” said Pauline, “but I’ll be back for you, probably in a day’s time.”

Peach, in a manner very unbecoming of a princess, flopped backwards onto the bed, bringing Pauline with her. The other woman chuckled, kicking off her high heels and turning around to face her.

“Hey!” she said playfully, “you know I can’t stay. The toads get up soon, I need to leave now or they’ll see me leaving the castle and know that I stayed the night.” Peach didn’t seem to be listening.

“You put your clothes on…” she said, sounding a little disappointed, “I like it when I can hold you without this stuff in-between us.” Pauline smiled.

“Come on, Peach. I have to go,” she said, trying very weakly to stand up. Peach kept her down, and she definitely didn’t protest.

“Take me with you…” murmured Peach.

“Would you really like that?” asked Pauline.

“Huh?” asked Peach, seeming more awake.

“I told you that I’d take you to my city when you want to take a day, just for the two of us. Would you like to go now?” asked Pauline. Peach looked at her, seeming a little forlorn and rejected.

“Yes, I really, really want to,” she said, “but…”

“The kingdom,” Pauline finished for her.

“Yes, the kingdom…” muttered Peach. She sighed, eventually forcing herself to let go of Pauline and immediately feeling the emptiness in her arms once the woman stood, putting her heels back on.

“Hey, I love you,” said Pauline. Peach huffed, pretending to be grouchy with her for leaving. Pauline smiled, tousled the princess’s hair, and left.

Peach would regret her lack of response for the rest of her life. She would regret not going with her, and would regret not asking her to stay with such conviction that she just couldn’t say no. Pauline would only come back once before it happened, but Peach didn’t know that yet.

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The loud, blaring whistle of a train woke Pauline from her slumber. She felt a lot better than she had in Bowser’s castle, and she was ready to face the world again. Goombrielle was sitting next to her, looking at the map and occasionally glancing out of the train windows at the tall sand dunes. The train slowly chugged to a stop, and Pauline could see the steel support beams of a train station whizz past the train until it pulled to a complete stop.

“Attention all passengers: This is the end of the line, Dry, Dry, Desert. Please disembark the train at this time, and mind the gap.” The announcement boomed over the intercom, and Pauline stood up with Goombrielle in tow, leading her off of the train and into the blisteringly hot air of the desert.

“Woo! Yeah, that’s a desert alright!” Goombrielle explained, holding the map up for Pauline to see, “now we’ve gotta go north for a really long time, so make sure you’ve got water and nutrients. You wouldn’t wanna pass out out there, I’d try to drag you back, but you’re four times my size.”

“Thanks, Goombrielle,” said Pauline, “where exactly is our destination?”

“Oh stars it’s way out there in the middle-a nowhere,” responded Goombrielle, leading the way out into the desert, “I mean at least that Toad guy helped me find it, or else we’d just be wandering for a long time until we somehow stumbled across it. It’s a pretty obscure ruin.”

“Hold up,” said Pauline, “is that a sentient, seven-foot-tall cactus?” There was something very tall and very spiky moving towards them at a relatively frightening speed.

“So it is,” said Goombrielle, “that’s a Pokey. Run.” She led the way and they both sprinted away from the sentient cactus. Once they were sure that they’d lost it, Goombrielle slowed back down to a walk.

“Woah! I’m outta breath,” she said, “can we just.. Sit down for a minute? Have some water?” Pauline nodded, pulling a bottle of water out of her purse and handing it to Goombrielle. They took turns drinking from it, and it was quickly emptied. As they sat there, regaining a little bit of their strength, they heard something.

“Hello?” It was a dry, cracking voice from just beyond the sand dune in front of them. Goombrielle and Pauline looked at one another.

“Anyone? Please?” it rasped. Pauline put the empty water bottle into her purse, closing it and approaching the sand dune. She reached the top, appeared shocked, and sprinted down to the other side, Goombrielle in tow. At the base of the dune was a winged koopa with a battered mail bag.

“Water… please…” rasped the koopa. Without hesitation, Pauline gave him the second bottle of water that she had stashed in her purse. The koopa began drinking it very slowly and carefully, and Pauline realized what happened. He was very dehydrated, and if he drank the water too quickly, his body wouldn’t be able to handle it. He would definitely need some electrolytes, and so she also fished around for her tonic, giving it to him as well. He smiled, thanking her in his raspy voice and downing the small tonic.

“That’s better…” his voice was still rough, but he no longer sounded like he was on the verge of death, “thank you. I thought I was going to die out here. Could you… if you wouldn’t mind, ya know….” He gestured to his right wing, which was under a large rock. Pauline and Goombrielle lifted the heavy rock, tossing it aside a short distance, and the koopa recoiled his wing, hissing a little in pain.

“Ah, yep. That’s gonna sting alright,” he said, “but it’s better than being stuck here…”

“What happened to you?” asked Goombrielle.

“I was delivering mail and then, out of nowhere, someone started launching rocks at me. I dodged a lot of them, but the last one hit me, and I got trapped out here. I tried to yell, but I guess I’m too far away from civilization for anyone to hear me,” the koopa explained.

“That’s terrible, why would they do that to you?” asked Pauline.

“For fun, I guess…” muttered the koopa, before he collected himself, “a-anyway, my name is Koops, at your service.”

“Oh no,” said Pauline.

“Alright!” exclaimed Goombrielle, “another one on the Bowser train!”

“B-Bowser?!” squeaked Koops.

“Yeah, he took Princess Peach. Pauline here is trying to get her back,” explained Goombrielle, “We actually just came from his castle. Man, he’s one messed-up dude.”

“Do- do I have to fight him?!” asked Koops.

“No, no you don’t,” said Pauline, “Goombrielle and I are just fine, you aren’t obligated to help us, don’t worry.”

“A-alright, thanks!” exclaimed Koops, “I mean… man, that’s one big koopa! Still, I owe you one, both of you. If I can help you guys, just contact me. I’m the only mailman, so I shouldn’t be hard to find.”

“Alright, nice to meet you, Koops!” exclaimed Goombrielle. Pauline waved, and they were off. In about two hours, they finally arrived at the ruins, which seemingly came out of nowhere. They started jutting out of the ground in odd places, and there was only one, tiny, goomba-sized entrance that Pauline could barely fit through. Just as she reached out, ready to help Goombrielle into the ruins, she spotted something on the horizon, moving fast. It was Koops.

“Wait!” he exclaimed, “I don’t know how to get back to civilization!” Oh. Right. Pauline supposed that they were stuck with him. She helped Goombrielle through, and then they both lowered a shivering Koops through the entrance. He kept his injured wing folded to his side, and had long since resorted to walking. The ruins were disturbingly quiet. Not quiet as in ‘finally inside after a loud and windy day in the desert’ quiet, but quiet as in ‘you could hear a pin drop a mile away’ quiet.

“Jeepers…” muttered Koops.

“Really?” responded Goombrielle, “‘jeepers?’” Pauline ignored the two of them as best she could, focusing on finding a path through the odd ruins. There was once again not a single enemy in sight. On multiple occasions, Goombrielle just barely stopped Pauline from tumbling into a pit or floor-trap, but aside from that, there was no danger. That was, until they came to the central chamber of the ruins.

This room was dimly illuminated by torches that were stuck to the walls of the triangular prism. With a steel collar around her neck, chained to the wall on the opposite side of the room, was Peach. She was fast asleep, but Pauline almost cried out because she noticed how much worse she looked than before. She looked like she hadn’t eaten in days, and clearly Bowser had gotten physical with her many times after they had left his castle. Pauline held back a sob, running to her and dipping down in front of her to gently unfasten the chain around her neck. Koops ran up behind her, Goombrielle in tow, and tapped her on the back, reaching into his mailbag with his spare hand.

“I’ve actually got some tools here…” he whispered, pulling out quite a few screwdrivers, a wrench, and some bolt cutters. Pauline decided not to ask, and she just thanked him, taking the objects and carefully getting to work. First, she unchained Peach from the wall, catching her body as it slumped forward and setting her gently down so that she could get the collar off of her. Fortunately, it opened and closed in a fashion similar to those of handcuffs, and because of the large size of the screws, it was easy for Pauline to open it and release Peach. She sobbed. The poor woman’s neck was red, and there were cuts from struggling against the bonds.

“Peach…” she whispered, “Peach, wake up. We need to get you out of here.”

“No…” murmured Peach, still half-asleep. It was then that Pauline remembered Toad’s words. He had explicitly said not to wake her up.

“Crap- guys,” Pauline whispered, “Peach has to stay asleep, we need to make sure that she doesn’t wake up in the desert.” Like a literal angel from heaven, Koops reached into his bag once more, procuring a few store-brand earplugs that were still in their container.

“I can never sleep if it’s even a little loud, so I have some super-strength earplugs. Do you think she could use these?” he asked, handing her a pair after opening the package. Pauline nodded, thanking him as quietly as possible. She didn’t really like putting them in Peach’s ears, but it was necessary. After that, she very, very delicately picked up the sleeping woman, carrying her bridal-style out of the ruins.

She took her time, carefully avoiding the traps and pits while not waking Peach. Once they were outside again, the trio began to make their way towards the train station.

“I can’t believe we just walked out with her!” whispered Goombrielle. All three of them felt like they would still get caught if they spoke too loudly.

“Toad was right, I think… we just need to make sure that Peach doesn’t wake up until we clear the whole desert,” responded Pauline, also whispering, “I don’t know why, but he was right.”