Husky: Uh, okay… so anyone listening to this now can read on if you dare!

Washu: Even though this isn’t a ghost story.

Yoshi: Yoshi scared of ghosts!

Washu: No, really? *yawn* Just get on with it, Husky. I’ll tell my life after you.

Husky: Thank you.

Anyway… let’s take it from da top.

I was the first born pup, an hour before my sibs. When I opened my eyes for the first time, I saw a light blue expanse wayyyyy up there in front of me. Since I was only a few minutes old, I had not clue that was the sky, so don’t think I was an idiot back then.

Unlike the other pups, I could see the moment I, er, "came out", as some people would say, and I could also run, bark, jump (pretty darn high if you think about me being scared by a spider, of all things!), bite and smell (and believe me, I can smell pretty bad). I think I was the runt of the litter because my mom didn’t really care for me, along with my brothers and sisters. But I couldn’t have cared less- I knew I didn’t really belong there anyway. So I picked myself up off the ground and dashed off trough the doggy door into my owner’s house.

The only one in the whole household who cared about me was sitting in front of the TV, playing Super Mario Bros. 3. I think I must have some natural instinct to bark and snap at anyone wearing a red hat and blue
overalls, ‘cause when I saw Mario on that screen I quickly had a fit, howling, snapping at the TV, running around in circles, etc. "Oh, calm down for Pete’s sake!" She laughed. After I was calmed down, I watched
her play for a few hours, and believe it or not, she made it to Bowser’s castle. I still can’t figure out what drove me to walk out that door, but I did anyway, so HAH!

I saw my mom being looked at by scientist dudes. They measured her and weighed her, trying to build a Husky robot that was nearly identical. I snuck around back behind the space station and saw a small hole. It was just big enough for me to squeeze through, so I clambered through. It appeared they were farther along than I thought. They had already built most of the Arctic Kingdom Environment Sectors, and now they just needed evil, power-hungry robot animals to roam its hills and dales. I ran over to a tree and fell asleep.

When I awoke, the people had already launched Space Station Silicon Valley into space. "Oh well," I said aloud. I was surprised- I had never heard my mom or siblings talk before. Maybe I’m just special or something, I thought. Then I fell asleep for another hour or two.

The months dragged on, and I was never so BORED! I enjoyed eating the snowflakes and chasing penguins around, but that got sooo boring. I had found berries and other stuff to eat, and it tasted awful! After about nine years of this, the space station headed for Earth… WHAT THE FRUIT?! Um, yeah. Yeah, it did. Not very quickly, I might add, but still. Half an hour passed, and Silicon Valley was a mile or two from New York. I sighed and walked over to the huge glass window. I hadn’t done very much with my life. I was nine years old, and there was only one day until my birthday, January 10th. I’d spent only a few hours on Earth, and now
I was on a space station, about to crash into New York. What a way to go, eh? Gazing out the window, I saw something out in the distance. It looked like a silver streak, and it was rapidly closing the gap between it and Silicon Valley.

I jumped out of the way just before it crashed through the window. It was a makeshift rocket, and it was falling apart fast. I followed it to the other glass wall, where it crashed through and plummeted to the
ground.

Looking out the window, I could see people and cars driving along. I ran and hid under a tree as Space Station Silicon Valley crashed into New York.

***

When I awoke, everything was just the way it had been, except for the fact that half of Silicon Valley was submerged in the ocean, not too far from shore. Dazed and confused, I stumbled out the window (it was not
underwater, but really, really close to it). I fell a few feet into the water, and I swam to shore as fast as I could. It seemed that the other animals hadn’t gotten out yet.

Up on shore, I wandered around the streets, through sewers and other stuff like that, not knowing where to go. After 10 minutes or so, I came upon a big green pipe. "I think I know what this is… but I must be
imagining things," I mumbled. Not really caring what the outcome would be, I jumped onto the rim of the pipe, almost falling off, but I still made it up. I gazed down. I couldn’t see anything, but it could have been that bump on the head when Silicon Valley crashed. "Maybe I shouldn’t do this," I said, but I jumped in anyway.

I popped out of the pipe into a forest, filled with scary thingies like bright red berries (I’m not joking. Those things were huge and I had never seen such berries before! Oh yeah, I can see in color too.), giant caterpillars, and one really, really huge castle. I sat down and thought about this for a while, but I was driven nearly insane from hunger, so I ran over to the berries and sniffed them casually, just in case someone- or
something- was watching. I licked them, then ate them. "Mmm… these are a lot better than anything I had in Silicon Valley!" I said, eating more. Unfortunately, someone was watching.

I felt a light tap on my back, but I ignored it. I was starved, but these berries were doing the trick. Again, something tapped me on the shoulder. I stopped for a second, but ignored it. Something growled behind me, and I got hit in the head by something hard and metallic. But I have a hard head, so it wasn’t too bad. I wheeled around and choked on the berries when I saw what it was.

"GACK! *coff coff* What the?!" I gasped. I think I had remembered something like if from the game my owner played. It looked like a turtle, but it stood upright. It had a helmet and something like armor on, and it wielded two hammers.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t turn you in to King Bowser." He growled.

Thinking quickly, I said, "Er, because, um, heh heh, well, because, uh… oh! Because… wait. Did you say
‘King Bowser’?!" I fumbled.

"Yes."

"Oh, well, in that case, uh, I don’t have a defense. I was just HUNGRY!" I cried, throwing myself to the
ground. I looked up at him, grinning.

He blinked like I was some psycho, but I don’t doubt him because that’s what I am. "Well, I guess you’d
better come along, then." I got up and followed him into the castle.

He kept looking to his side, making sure I was following. "What? It’s not like I’m gonna wet on anything!" I said. We walked in silence through the halls, and I saw a big door ahead of us. He heaved the door open, and we emerged into a huge throne room.

"KING BOWSER SIR!!! I CAUGHT AN INTRUDER. WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH HER?" I cringed at the word
‘intruder’. I yawned, looking around the room. "I guess he’s not here. He must be out fighting the Mario Bros. But we’re gonna hafta check the other rooms anyway," he said.

We walked from room to room, but they were all empty. The last room wasn’t, though. "Excuse me, Prince Lemmy, but I found this dog wandering around outside. King Bowser isn’t here, so what should I do with her?" the Hammer Brother asked him.

"Uh, I guess I’ll take care of her until King Dad gets back," he said, balancing on his ball.

"Okay." The Hammer Brother left.

There was a long (30 second) silence until I spoke up. "So… when you said ‘I’ll take care of her’, what exactly did you mean by that?"

He laughed. "I don’t know. Feed you, maybe. But that depends."

"On what?"

"If you’re hungry or not."

"You bet I am! I haven’t eaten anything good for a long time. But I just had some of those berries outside. They were okay." I told him.

"You actually ATE them? Those are Yoshi berries! Yoshis eat them."

"Oh, really?! What’s a Yoshi?" I asked.

"One of our worst enemies. They look like dinosaurs, and I think they are dinosaurs. They’ll eat almost anything. They have long tongues and they come in a bunch of different colors."

"I see, I think. So, what’s gonna happen to me when Bowser gets here?"

Lemmy shrugged. "We’ve never had a dog come here, except for Bagels Woof. She’s the queen of all dogs, so you’d better respect her.

"Yeah! Of course I will. I’d better be if I want to live past age ten. My birthday is tomorrow," I informed him.

Suddenly, we hear a loud roar. "That’d be King Dad. Maybe you should hide until I explain this to him. If you want, you can hide under my bed, as long as you don’t use it as a cat would a litter box." He grinned and rolled on his ball out of the room.

"What a welcome wagon." I yawned and crawled under his bed. "Zzz…"

About ten minutes later…

"Zzz... hunh? GAH!" I awoke startled, not remembering why I was under a bed. "Oh yeah," I mumbled to myself. I stretched my legs and looked out from under the bed. No one was in the room. I decided I would lay there until someone came in, preferably Lemmy.

I think I was under that bed for about seven more minutes. I must have gone to sleep again, because I didn’t hear when Bowser and Lemmy walked into the room. I awoke again to something yanking on my tail. "Wuh? AAAHHH! SOMETHING’S EATING ME!!!" After being yanked out from under the bed, I stared into the face of the all-mighty ruler of Dark Land himself. "H-h-hiya. ^_^" I stammered nervously. Geez, you wouldn’t believe how lucky I was that he was in a good mood, because I was sure I would be in for it if he had just, um, I don’t know. Uh, actually, maybe he wasn’t in a good mood. If he was, I wouldn’t have ended up in the dungeon.

"So you’re the dog Lemmy’s been talking about all day, huh?"

"I guess I am." I shrugged. Heh heh, I thought.

Just then, Bagels walked by the door. She had a pet translator hanging around her neck. She stopped when
she looked into the room. "Hi Bowser! Who that?" She walked in.

Oh no. This must be Bagels Woof. I’d better not mess this up. I stared down at the floor as she approached.

"Who’re you?" she asked skeptically.

"Uh, I’m Husky, a low-class breed compared to you. It’s an honor to be in your presence, Miss Bagels Woof." If that wasn’t good, I don’t know what is.

"Mm-hmm, that’s nice. Uh, can I get you anything, Bowser, mighty tyrant of the Mushroom Kingdom?" She looked up at Bowser.

"I guess, if you want to, um, I’d like some Koopa fruit," he said.

Bagels looked surprised. "Koopa fruit? But I thought you hated that."

"Ooh, I do! But I’ll try some again, thanks."

Bagels dashed out of the room to find some Koopa fruit.

(Note to kirbystar56: Please don’t hurt me.)

"Uhm, Mister Bowser sir, I wanted to know… what’s gonna happen to me? I heard you don’t like things from Earth."

"Yeah. That’ll be up to the court tomorrow," he answered. Bowser whispered something to Lemmy and
left.

"King Dad says we’re gonna have dinner now. Or…"

"I TOLD YOU, HOLD YOUR HORSES!!!" Clawdia screamed from in the kitchen.

"BUT WE JUST PUT OUR LIVES ON THE LINE BATTLING OUR WORST ENEMIES!!! I THINK WE DESERVE SOMETHING TO EAT!" Bowser roared.

"Oh, that’s nice dear. Now, why don’t you go watch TV until dinner’s ready, okay?"

"… Um, maybe we’ll be having that dinner in a little while. But you have to wait in the dungeon ‘til tomorrow. And I’m supposed to show you down there."

***

I had probably spent ten minutes in the cell when two Koopatrol (roughly) escorted a human girl down into the same cell that I was in. After staring at each other for about half a minute (there wasn’t much else to look at), she finally spoke up. "So. What’re YOU in for?" she asked, lying on the cot thingy.

"I was born. No, really, I just got here. I was eating some berries outside and… uh, yeah."

She looked at me and, not expecting an answer from me, promptly fell off the cot. "WHOA! YOU JUST TALKED?!" she said, astonished.

"Der, yah. You’d kinda expect things like that when ya see turtles walking around on two legs instead of four and berries that taste better than they look. And you think I’m weird?"

"Well, frankly, yes."

"Oh, I get it now. You’re one of those stereotypical peoples, aren’t you?"

"Is that even a word?"

"How the heck am I supposed to know?!"

And things continued on and on like that for a long while.

We talked for a while until Washu (the girl I met) glanced at her watch. "It’s getting late. I’m gonna go to sleep. Don’t wake me up." And she laid down on the cot. About five minutes later, she sat up. "I can’t sleep," she announced.

"Try counting sheep. *_* That’s what I do," I told her.

"… You really do that?"

"Yup. I love sheep."

"So do I. Sorta, anyways. We had some sheep on our farm back on Earth. My mom and dad let me keep my favorite one. I named her Flossy, from a video game I played."

"You mean… you can tell the difference between two sheep?" I asked.

"Well, no. Not really. I think Flossy was the nicest one."

"Um, okay." So she tried to sleep again and she finally did. I thought that was a good idea, so I walked around in a circle a few times (I don’t know why, instinct I guess) and laid down to sleep.

***

I was still sleeping when Washu woke up. She was making a heck of a lot of noise with a suitcase thing she brought, so I couldn’t sleep any longer. I yawned and stretched my legs before asking her what the suitcase was for. "I brought some stuff for the trip," she informed me.

"Trip?"

"Yes. I built a rocket from scrap and flew to New York. It wasn’t too good though… it started coming apart an hour after it launched. When it crashed into a space station, well, that did A LOT of damage to it. So when it neared the ground, there wasn’t much left. I wasn’t hurt, though. I’m lucky, I guess. I found this green pipe and jumped into it and BANG. The next thing ya know, I end up in here with a talking dog."

"Hey! I was on that space station."

"Oh. Cool."

"So anyways," I said, eyeing the suitcase, "what kind of stuff is in there?"

"Uh, lessee. My N64, controllers and games, my SNES, controllers and games, Gameboy Color and games, Player’s Guides for the games, laptop, a bottle of water, some food, blanky, and a pillow," she said, taking out the items.

"… How did all that fit in THAT suitcase?" I asked, amazed.

"Well, it’s a big suitcase, ya know."

We talked for a while longer when she told me she had never met the Koopa Kids. "WHAT?! You’re kidding, right? How long have you BEEN in this castle? I was probably in here for FIVE minutes when I saw Lemmy!"
I said.

"Oh yeah, I’m serious! It seems everyone in THIS castle seems to know what to do with humans as soon as they set foot on their property. And that’s throw 'em in the dungeon. Why on Earth do they have a problem
with ME?"

"Because you’re a… well, let me ask you this. Have you played any video games relating to Mario or Bowser?" I asked her.

"No, I don’t think so."

"Well Mario and Luigi are HUMANS and they always rescue Princess Peach and defeat Bowser. It’s a well-known fact that Koopas despise humans, probably because of their hatred for Mario and his brother."

"Whoa! I never knew so much was going ON around here! I need to play Mario-related games sometime soon."

"Uh-huh…"

We were about to continue our conversation when a Koopatrol opened the cell door and said, "You’re going into court soon. Follow me."

So we followed him out of the dungeon. Washu made big eyes at me that said, "Oh poopy." I shrugged and walked into the court room.

***

No one was in the court room when we got there. Washu sat down in a chair in front of a table and I sat down next to her (on the floor). She checked her watch. "It’s 8:55. Why do they have to do this so early?" I assumed she was talking to me but I didn’t know the answer so I kept
quiet.

At nine o’ clock (Washu told me because she was looking at her watch every ten seconds), everyone (well, not everyone in the castle, anyway) filed into their seats and Bowser headed up to the judge’s podium
thingy. "Uh oh… you’re in trouble now, kid. But I’m behind you 99.9%. That is if you give me a doggy treat," I whispered to Washu.

"Shut up! Do you wanna get us killed now or what?" she whispered back, kicking me in the side.

"OWWIE! QUIT KICKING ME!!! I was just trying to humor you."

"SILENCE!!!" Bowser roared, slamming his mallet thingy on the podium. "Since this trial is being held to determine the lives of these two INGRATES… the jury will discuss their opinions now," Bowser said.

"B-but don’t we get a DEFENSE?!" Washu asked.

"Sorry kid, this ain’t Earth," he said as he walked towards the jury.

"Oy. I don’t think I like where this is going," Washu said.

I pondered what to say and came up with, "Maybe he’s in a bad mood or something." (Oh yeah, ya figure?!)

It didn’t take long before Bowser walked back to the podium thingy. "I’m not afraid to tell you that the jury has decided that you shall be executed at dawn tomorrow. Not get outta my sight before I change the time to noon TODAY!!!" After hearing this we hightailed it out the door before he could say anything else.

***

Washu and I were sitting under a tree outside the castle. "Do you think we should run away?" she asked.

I pondered this for a minute or so, then shrugged. When she didn’t say anything else for five minutes, I asked, "Wanna take a walk?" She nodded. We got up and started walking through the woods.

We chatted about stuff like the games she had, the Koopas, music, and the stories she had written. "You write stories?"

"Yes, with my laptop. What else would I use it for?"

"Internet access?"

"Oh, uh, I guess."

As we walked through the woods, we heard a strange noise. It sounded like a garage door closing on a car.

"Come on, you stupid thing! Work already!"

We ran behind a tree and peered around it. "It looks like Ludwig is trying to get some sort of projector thingy to work," I whispered.

"Huh? Oh! How do you know that’s him?"

"Because I watched a girl play every single level in Super Mario Bros. 3, that’s how."

"Ooh, kay."

While I was telling Washu about my past (she fell asleep through half of it), Ludwig must’ve heard us
because he had walked up to the tree and put his hand on it. "So… what brings you two to these parts?"

"Um, uh, er…" I managed to say.

Washu woke up. "Zzz… Hunh?"

"We were just… taking a walk," I announced.

"Um, uh, yeah," Washu quickly put in, now fully realizing that she was face-to-face with Bowser’s eldest son (Yes, it took her that long! And that’s the kinda thing you’d expect from me…).

"Uh huh. Well since you’ve stopped by…" He trailed off as he glanced over at his invention. He smiled and turned back to face us. "I’ll show you what I’ve been working on." He gestured us to follow him over to the projector-like thing.

"I call it the Dimensional Projector. It’s supposed to create a dimensional rift. I know exactly why it isn’t working now that I really think about it." He tinkered with it for a few moments. When he finished, he pressed a button but nothing happened. "Rrr," he grumbled, kicking the projector. It coughed out smoke, sputtered, and finally a blue light shone through the lens. In front of it, about a yard away, a light blue portal appeared.

A skeptical look crossed Washu’s face. "And how do you know it works?" she asked.

"Well that’s what you’re here for!" He laughed and pushed us into the vortex.

***

"Owch! Hey, could you get offa me PLEASE?!" Washu yelled as we fell out of the portal.

"Oops. Sorry. Anyway, where do you think we are?" I asked.

We turned around and the vortex was gone. "Well how should I know? I’m just as baffled as you are," Washu said as she stood up.

As she dusted herself off, we heard a voice call. "Hey! Are you guys all right?"

I turned in the direction of the source. It was a girl- or, to be more precise, a teen with deep rose-colored hair and golden eyes. She came jogging up to us, apparently to see if we were okay.

"Um, yeah, I guess. But we’re a little lost," Washu said.

"Oh, you’re in the Outer Region. This is where I live. Say, where did you come from? I haven’t seen you around here before."

"Vortex," I muttered.

"One of Ludwig’s inventions. It created a dimensional rift that he pushed us into," Washu translated. I rolled my eyes.

"Ludwig von? Koopa? I know him. He owns an opera house. Or at least he did anyway. Hey, that reminds me of the plays I was in…"

And she proceeded to tell us the story of how she met Kamek and started a good friendship with him and… well, you’d know it if you’ve read "The Kamek of the Opera".

So we learned that this girl went by the name of Celeste. "Now we gotta figure out a way to get you back to the Mushroom Kingdom," she stated after we told her about our recent past. I was about to ask why we should go back if we were gonna hafta bite the bullet in a day, but she just looked at me and winked. I gave her a confused look but didn’t say anything.

We sat around for a while thinking when the portal opened up, solving our problem. "You coming Celeste?" Washu asked. "Sure. I think I’ll come with you and see how Kamek is doing," she replied.

***

"It’s about freakin’ time!" Washu snapped as we stepped out. Ludwig threw his arms up. "It’s not like it’s gonna matter. But King Dad would get mad at me if I were to do away with you instead. I personally don’t have a problem with you two if you would stay outta my sight, but there’s no way to change King Dad’s mind."

"Well that’s a jolly way of looking at it," Washu sighed.

"HELLOOO?! Why doesn’t Bowser just let them live with Mario or something?" Celeste put in.

"Celeste? Where did... never mind. Bowser just doesn’t like those two and that’s that," Ludwig stated flatly.

***

As we exited the woods, Celeste tried again. "So, maybe if you and your sibs put up a good enough defense, Bowser would let Husky and Washu stay."

Ludwig didn’t comment. He seemed to be thinking it through. Finally, he said, "And… why would we want them to stay?"

"Oh geez, I could go on for hours about all the things I could do! Like, um, chase
cats and pull sleds and-"

Washu cut me off. "And what? Poo on the floor? No offense, but I think you could come up with something better."

After thinking about it, I said, "So what could you do?"

That seemed to catch her off-guard (another thing one would normally expect from me). "Well, I… have opposable thumbs!" She smiled in triumph.

"Oh geez. DAD, please spare me," Ludwig muttered.

As Washu and I continued bickering, Celeste snapped her fingers. "That’s it! You guys always seem to argue with each other! That’s all the entertainment Bowser would need!" The two of us stopped, looked at each
other, and burst out laughing. Celeste frowned.

"I don’t think that’d work. Besides, everyone knows I’d win. There would be no argument," Washu informed her.

"I don’t think so. I may be a dog, but can think up something," I paused. "Like… what the best Mario game is. Super Mario Bros. 3? Or Super Mario 64?" Washu just shook her head and grinned. Of course, I had no idea that Celeste’s plan would save our hides.

***

"So lemme get this straight. When you were a day old, you hopped aboard a space station, the space station launched, then ten years later crashed into New York city, you found a warp pipe, and you took it to Dark Land? That has got to be the strangest story I’ve ever heard," said Larry after hearing my tale. I blinked.

"Well, yeah."

"So why did the two of you come to me again?"

Washu and I looked at each other. "We wanted to meet you guys before tomorrow," she
explained.

"I see. Well, I’ve got to tend to my plants." He began to walk out the door.

"Can we come and watch?" I called after him

"You want to watch him water his plants? What if we get eaten?" Washu whispered to me.

"I guess- hey, waitaminute! How do you know about Piranha Plants?" I questioned her.

"I said I had never played the gamesbefore, but my friends brought their systems over and I watched."

"Yeah, okay."

We followed Larry out of the castle and to his garden. There were a lot of different flowers- and Piranha Plants. "Holy tacos! You have a lot of things growing here!"

"Well, yeah, I watch over Grass Land, you know."

I elbowed Washu (as best I could since I’m a dog) and whispered, "He likes plants." She just sighed and rolled her eyes at my idiocy.

We watched him manage his plants for a few more minutes. Washu finally grew tired and quickly said, "Well we gotta go meet the rest of you guys so we’ll just be on our way." She grabbed me by the tail and headed back towards the castle. But what she didn’t KNOW was that I absolutely HATE being tugged by the tail. It all started way back when I was… Eh, well, let’s just say I dun like it. I hastily turned around so she wouldn’t keep pulling.

"So who’s next?" Washu questioned.

"Morton, a.k.a. Big Mouth, according to the cartoon." She nodded. 'Poor Washu,' I thought. 'She has no idea what she’s getting herself into…'(not meaning to offend any Morton fans, here)

After wandering down the corridors of the Koopas’ stronghold (and keeping a wary eye out for Bowser or any other residents we wouldn’t want to anger) for a while, we heard a faint chatter coming from one of the rooms. I nudged Washu and nodded, moving all James Bond- or ninja-like up to the door while she casually walked behind.

A few knocks on the door resulted in the tan Koopa Kid’s swift presence. "What?" He looked thoroughly irate. Peering around his legs I noticed a show muted on his TV. It looked like Judge Judy or something.

Because Larry wasn’t angry or anything when we had met up with him, Washu didn’t know exactly how to start off the conversation. She just stood there with a worried expression on her face. Fortunately (?) I was
right on the ball.

"Hello!" I grinned up at him, wagging my tail in a friendly manner.

"What do you want?" He tapped his foot impatiently and crossed his arms. Morton was missing his show and wasn’t too happy about it. But the few things I’ve learned in the past are these: 1. People think you’re cute
when you act all stupid, innocent, and happy-go-lucky. 2. Acting this way gets you out of trouble or will at least chip away at the stone when you’re between a rock and a hard place. At least… that’s what happens to me.

Well that’s not exactly what happened in this situation. I decided to go with the truth. "Because of our *ahem* situation tomorrow, Washu and I think we should meet you and your sibs before then."

Morton sighed and glanced heavy-heartedly back at the TV. Well, he had a choice… he could have either invited us in or slammed the door in our face. "Make it quick," he grumbled briskly. I could sense Washu beaming at me, probably because she knew it was such a sad attempt it deserved praise.