Misunderstanding

A Second Shot Shouldn't Hurt

Peach couldn't help but to be amazed at all of the artifacts littered around the Darklandian castle. Paintings from centuries past, vases carved carefully and expertly by ancient koopa claws, statues of the previous monarchs that all seemed to have their own maniacal charm. The young princess asked about every statue and painting, and even the faded carvings on the walls. Bowser answered every question with varying interest and knowledge.

Soon she walked up to something that stunned her. A huge painting, big enough to take up an entire wall, of two koopas that looked a bit like Bowser, and a smaller one between them. It took her Bowser's uncomfortable grunt to realize that this was a family portrait of Bowser and this family when he was still a child. She looked over at him with curiosity in her eyes, and opened her mouth to ask about it, but he stopped her where she stood.

"They aren't around anymore," he said simply.

She bit her lip and almost asked more about it, but his body language was practically screaming that she'd better not. His tone also didn't help, seeing that he seemed to be angry about it. She stored all of this and saved it for later, when he was in a much better mood. For then, they moved on and continued to tour the rooms and halls full of ancient pieces of history for the Darklands.

Suddenly something about the stories Bowser was telling her didn't seem to add up. She stopped walking, a signal for Bowser to stop as well. He missed it for a moment and kept walking until he didn't hear her bare footsteps beside him, and looked around for her. Once he found her, he turned his body around to face her. They were about two or three feet away from each other.

"What's up?" he asked, raising a brow and crossing his arms with a smirk. "Having trouble taking everything in? It's a lot of cool stuff, I know, but us koopas have to stay cool, and I guess it just affects our history too."

"Hm? Oh, no, no, nothing like that," Peach said with a small laugh, waving her hand, as if to dispel the thought. "I was just a little curious about the actual Darklands history itself, and not just the paintings and such."

"Okay, what're you confused about?"

"Well, from what you've told me, the past rulers of the Darklands seemed to know what they're doing. They had strong armies, good trade routes, powerful allies, and enough wealth to dominate the world."

"Right," Bowser said, urging her to get to the point. He knew how awesome his family was, what was so confusing about that?

"Well, to be blunt, how did your land space get so tiny you had to try and take over mine?" she asked, looking up at him.

Bowser felt a small surge of anger over a number of things pass through him until he looked into her eyes. The precious sapphire gems she had were enough to make him remember that it was just an innocent curiosity asking the question, not a malicious royal trying to make him squirm. He took a small enough breath for Peach not to notice, then let that tiny intake of air relieve his senses.

"It's from years of mistakes made by the other politicians they added on once the people were unhappy with just having a dictatorship. There were corrupt Darklandians added on to help make decisions that affected big parts of the kingdom, and they wrecked a lot of the work put into this place by my ancestors before."

"Oh," Peach mumbled, looking down at her suddenly fidgeting hands. She felt bad for asking.

Bowser saw through her guilt and tried to alleviate it by showing her more paintings. She was entertained, but still felt bad for bringing up two obviously difficult things for Bowser in day. He was being so kind and now she had upset him twice. The one good thing was that she felt just slightly closer and a little honored that he was trusting her enough with information that may be able to knock him out as a ruler, so she knew well enough not to betray that trust.