Paper Mario - Folded Chaos

| Chapter 13 - Picnic Road |

                          
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              Picnic Road. A beautiful and scenic hillside right outside Toad Town. Many of the residents of said town spend their summer days enjoying the warm weather on the hillside. Mario, on the other hand, wasn't very familiar with the area. He could recall some one or two times he'd been there with the Princess on a picnic. He didn't go often since he lived so far from the town and when he was in town he was busy with other business, too busy to ever just visit the hillside for no reason. So, to him, it was nice to once again visit the well-kept trail, though he did wish they were visiting there on better terms. With everything going on, he knew they had no time to relax and needed to focus on finding the end of their first streamer.
Olivia, on the other hand, was completely mesmerized by everything Picnic Road had to offer. The trees, the butterflies, the flowers, all just caught her attention. To her, focusing on the current task at hand was least of her concern. "Wow! Just look at all of this Mario!" She cheered gleefully. "It's all so pretty! It would be a great area to have a picnic, don't you think. Hey! Is that why it's called Picnic Road?" She turned to face Mario, who was currently sitting with a slight scowl on his face. While he was happy that the beautiful sights of the area had gotten her out the slight slump that the shopkeeper toad had put her in earlier, her loosing completely focus on their mission kind of frustrated him.
She seemed to catch onto his annoyance rather quickly as she immediately began to apologize. "Oh, I'm so sorry Mario. It's just so amazing here that I almost forgot about the streamer. And all of our other problems!" She finished with a slight half-hearted chuckle that lacked any real emotion behind it. Mario glared at her before turning back to the path with a sigh. Was she being serious? How could she already lost focus on their mission this early on? How was he supposed to get anything done with her constantly dragging him down? He was already stressed about so many things at the moment like if the Princess was truly alright or if Luigi was really going to be fine on his own. Some part of him even worried for the well-being of Bowser, though he'd never admit it. He groaned, rubbing his forehead tiredly. Was having this random kid with him really worth the added stress? Couldn't he just simply leave her somewhere and go on alone?
No. He knew he couldn't do that. He knew he didn't have the heart to do that. He'd never had the heart to just leave someone behind. Leaving some poor kid alone just because he didn't want to deal with her just seemed so selfish and wrong in his mind. He took a deep breath. He then turned to face her again, any anger and annoyance his face once held was gone. But upon looking down at the kid, he noticed that her demeanor had changed. Instead of floating around looking at everything around her curiously like she normally did, she was instead just standing there with her feet firmly planted on the soft grass staring at the ground. She twiddled her thumbs anxiously while tears threatened to spill out.
                   Now, Mario just felt bad. He knew barely anything about her, yet he was already being so cold to her. He couldn't really recall the last time he'd been so cold to, well, anyone. And when it came to adventuring companions, he alway tried to be warm and welcoming almost immediately, even if the other didn't really like him at first. Or ever. But for some reason, he'd really only been closed up to the origami girl, any warmth peaking out once and awhile, normally on accident. The only time he'd truly been open to her is the night he told her all about Luigi. But even that was kind of out of compliance rather than compassion. Maybe it was fear or maybe it was just because it been awhile since his last real adventure. Maybe it was just his stress getting to him. Maybe it was a mix of all three. But whatever it was, he decided that it wasn't going to let it determine how he treated the kid.
He knelt down and faced the kid. He placed a hand on her shoulder before giving her a soft smile to show her that he wasn't mad at her. Luckily for him, she'd seem to get the message as she soon returned the smile. Mario, satisfied with that response, got up off the ground and looked up at the sky. The shy was slowly turning from a variety of warm hues into a dark navy blue speckled with stars. He'd looked around for some place to rest for the night. There weren't any buildings in sight, only trees. Trees would have to do then. Walking over to one tall tree that was gated in behind some white fences, he slid down the trunk, patting the ground next to him. The origami kid understood and slowly floated to the tree and sat beside him. The sky above them went dark and the two slowly drifted to sleep.

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"SITUATION!"

Mario groaned and slowly rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Olivia did the same before the two exchanged confused glances. Then they proceeded to get up to see what all the commotion was all about. As Mario stood, he felt an ache shoot down his back. Sleeping propped up against a tree wasn't exactly the best way to sleep all night and now due to this, Mario was achy all over. He grumbled a bit under his breath before refocuses on finding out what had caused their rude awakening.
"A SITUATION?!" Two Koopas shouted between each other. "WHAT KIND OF SITUATION? GOOD SITUATION OR BAD SITUATION?" One Koopa shouted. "BAD SITUATION!" The other returned. That's when the two noticed Mario. Immediately, their tones changed. "Oh hello Mario. Have you come to seek shellvation?" Mario just the stared on, confused. The other Koopa continued. "You've come to the right place for total shellvation." He paused, "Well that's normally what I would say, but we currently have a little situation that needs to be handled first. You see, down those sacred steps over there," he pointed towards some dusty and worn stairs that lead downward, "lead to the holy and great Earth Vellumental temple, home of the almighty Earth Vellumental!" Olivia, who at this point was completely confused and lost on what the Koopas were taling about spoke up.
                     "What's a Earth Vellumental?" She asked. The two Koopas turned to face her before one walked over to her, knelt down and put his hand on her shoulder. She flinched her shoulder away from the weird Koopa, but he didn't seem to mind. The Koopa then spoke.
                       "I'm glad you asked, young one." He cleared his throat before continuing, speaking to her as if he was telling a whimsical fairytale to a toddler. "The Earth Vellumental is an all powerful god who can control the very ground we stand on. It has these big, sharp claws and a hard sturdy shell. Some even say that it's the last remaining Vellumental god. It's just that powerful!" Olivia, despite being slightly uncomfortable with the whole situation spoke once again, backing away from the Koopa slightly.
                       "There's other Vellumentals? What happen to them?" She inquired, curiously. The Koopa chuckled a bit before speaking. "There were other Vellumental at one point. There was one who controlled all liquids while there was another harnessed the power of fire. Oh! And there was also one who controlled the ice and snow in a way that would chill one to the bone. But they don't exist anymore. Probably because they weren't as powerful as our mighty Earth Vellumental. I could tell you even more about our all mighty god if you'd like." But before he could continue his witnessing in the name of the Koopas' god, they all heard a shriek come from down the stone stairs.

                    "ITS TRYING TO STEAL OUR LAST SHELL STONE! SOMEONE, ANYONE PLEASE HELP!"

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