Peach's New Clothes

4. Rescue Mission?

Mario and Luigi soon figured out Bowser had cleared the area around the castle of any hills and forests. The area of Bowser's domain thus looked even more depressing than what they remembered. And of course it left the brothers unable to run to the castle quite as smoothly, with no cover from the sight of the castle.

"Like open areas ever stopped you from rescuing Peach," Luigi said as the brothers watched the surroundings from behind a big tree, last one before 2 kilometers of clearing opened ahead of them.

Mario shook his head. "This is different. Just look at it, if he didn't have something special planned for us for when we try to cross this plain, he wouldn't have bothered."

"Maybe it's just some extravaganza. You know Bowser is a show-off."

"No, bro. We have to find another way."

"But what other way?"

"There must be some pipe going to the castle."

They backed away from the open space and looked around the surrounding area.

"This is just a forest," Luigi lamented.

"A forest planted on the dead mountain. There must be some purpose, something inside here."

They walked together, backtracking the path they came on. After a few minutes Luigi stopped. "What's the point of walking the same route. If there was something, we would've noticed it on our way here."

"No Luigi, we thought-a just heading closer and closer to the castle would've been enough. We were blinded by how easy it seemed. Now we're not."

They suddenly saw a hut that was wedged between trees just off the path. The area in front of it was cleared from the direction they were now heading in, but a thick cover of trees filled the area behind it.

"What did I tell you?" Mario said as he stepped out of the path toward the hut.

"Mario, I don't like this," Luigi said, staying firmly on the path, "it's standing there like we're supposed to find it."

"Non-sense." Mario was now perhaps 20 meters away from the path. As he made another step forward, Luigi saw him fall right through the grass.

"Mario!" Luigi said as he sprung toward the place Mario fell through but quickly stopped, slowing down to watch his steps, tapping the grass in front of him with a foot before continuing with each step. He continued walking forward until he neared the spot where Mario fell through and as he knelt down to look closer at the grass, he saw outlines of a large trapdoor. He shook his head. "My bro, brave but always too hasty." He touched the grass and nothing happened. He carefully leaned with his hand against it, trying to push it down and slowly felt it give way. He pushed further until the door opened enough to see down, but it was dark. "Mario!" he called down.

"Luigi!" he heard, faint voice of Mario from deep below. "There's a tunnel here! It leads in the direction of the castle, come down!" Mario was clearly unharmed by the long fall.

"Mario, that's clearly a trap!"

"Well, it's not like I'm getting out of it now."

"But why should I follow you inside, then we're both trapped!"

"Is there something we would not get out of together?"

"This tunnel for instance! When we grab Peach, how do you think we'll get out of there on our way back?"

"Not like Peach would be unguarded. We'll defeat Bowser, together, just like any other time!"

"I'll go get help! Make a rope out of vines to drag you out."